THE WANGANUI DOUBLE FATALITY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 84, 7 January 1928, Page 3

THE WANGANUI DOUBLE FATALITY

attempts at rescue. Doaiinion Special Service. Wanganui, January 6. In connection with the drowning fatality in which Claud Mulvaney (Auckland) and Howard Bernard Loft lost their lives in Wanganui River yesterday, the rescuer of two other children' and a woman was Mr. J. H. Anderson, a well-known milk vendor and ex-tram conductor. Anderson, who is a strong swimmer, said that he. was motoring along the road when he heard children crying out. He thought at first that they were playing, and on second thoughts he surmised there must be something wrong. He ran over to the river and thought be would walk out to where the children were in the water, but when a few feet out he stepped straight over a ledge and was completely immersed fully clothed. It did not take him long to get the children to the bank, and then he went to the rescue of the woman, who was floating face down. It was a more difficult task to get her out, but in this he was assisted at the bank bv another ladv. Anderson then commenced to dive for the other two who were drowned. He soon found, however, that the task was hopeless, owing to the depth of water at the spot and the strong undercurrent. Anderson pavs tribute to the plucky efforts of another boy, about lb, wrom he did not know, who from a boat dived several times in an attempt to recover the bodies.