THE "RUN-AROUND"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 59, 7 September 1938, Page 13

THE "RUN-AROUND"

TEAMSTER'S DEATH

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST

How a teamster and his dray and horses were engulfed by an unusually large wave at the "Run-around," near Ohiro\Bay, was described this morning at an inquest before the Coroner (Mr. E. Gilbertson, JJP.), into the death of Harry Perrett, aged 68, of Island Bay* who was drowned on August 26. Senior-Sergeant D. J. O'Neill conducted the inquest, and Mr. ,C. : J. O'Regan appeared for the relatives of the deceased.

Lionel .Kitchener James, labourer, aged 22, 'said that his work was to help fill the drays on the beach with graver and sand.' On that day he was engaged on the beach near the water's edge at a place known locally as "Fly Rock Bay" and to others as the "Run-around," about 200 yards west from the extreme end of Tawa Street, To get to this place the teams had to pass under a bluff for a distance of about 150 yards, and for most, of this t|me the horses and dray had to travel in the surf. At about 2.30 p.m. he had helped Perrett to load his dray with gravel when it was decided to make it the last load as the tide was making and the sea was coming up, fairly rough. They were both on the dray and had gone only about 50 yards, which took them under the bluff, when he heard Perrett say "Look out for this one," meaning a high wave. The next moment the wave broke on the dray and then hit the cliff, and when rebounding from the cliff it turned,the dray over, throwing Perrett and witness into the water. Witness was taken out in the breakers, and did not see the deceased after, that. He felt a heavy wave break on top of him\ He was then throwing his arms about, -jand did not know whether he was going out to sea or not. The next thing he remembered was that he was up on the beach and the surf was dragging him back. He dug "his hands and knees into the sand and managed to get out of the water half dazed. He struggled back under the cliff to see if he could find Perrett, but could not see him anywhere. The horses were still attached to the dray and struggling to,get free. They were struggling for ,about twenty minutes before they were drowned.

He saw he could not do anything, said witness, and, being wet through, he commenced to climb the cliff. He got stuck about 50 yards up the cliff, and two men later came to his assistance.

When he and Perrett commenced to come out the waves were reaching the cliff, said witness. They would have got round in safety had not this heavy and unusual wave caught them. Such waves, under the conditions prevailing that afternoon,'were very infrequent. There might be only one in a hundred like it.

To. Mr. ■ O'Regan, witness said he was standing up in the middle of the dray wheh the wave came up. . The wave on its way did not take the deceased off the dray, but on the way back.

Jim Perrett, brother of the deceased, who also gave evidence, said that he had seen pedestrians in trouble at that place, but this was the first time he had heard of a dray being in trouble.

Evidence was also given regarding the recovery of the body. A verdict was returned that the deceased was accidentally drowned when driving a team of horses past the "Run-around, 1'1 near Ohiro Bay. "When conditions are like that I think pedestrians who endeavour to cross there take their lives in their hands," observed the Coroner