GIRL FALLS DOWN CLIFF

Evening Star, Issue 22686, 28 June 1937, Page 11

GIRL FALLS DOWN CLIFF

BAKING DF DOG ATTRACTS RESCUERS The harking of a small fox terrier dog among the rocks at Taylor’s Mistake yesterday afternoon attracted the attention of two men, and soon they heard a woman calling for help (states the Christchurch ‘ Press ’). Rushing to the spot, they found that Marjorie Ockenden, aged 18. of Scarborough, had fallen about 18ft on to the rocks, and was lying injured close to the sea. Miss Ockenden had been climbing along the foreshore at Eawhai Point, on the Sumner side of Taylor’s Mistake, and started to return towards the huts on the other side of the bay. She did riot take the usual route, but used a slippery short cut made worse by the recent ruin. When she had got some way up this she slipped and fell about 18ft to the rocks below. Fortunately she landed on her feet, and thus escaped any serious injury. Her right foot wafc badly bruised and cut, the small of her back was strained, and the hack of her neck was bleeding The two men who found her—Messrs M. Wilson and F.'Hobson—have weekend cottages at Taylor’s Mistake, and they were soon joined by Mrs Osborn, who lives there. While the two men went in search of a stretcher whioli is kept in a hut where St. John Ambulance boys spend the week-end, Mrs Osborn covered the injured girl with rugs and blankets. When the stretcher was finally brought it took eight persons to carry Miss Ockenden slowly along the rocks to where a car had been prepared. Miss Ockenden was taken to her home at Scarborough, and a doctor who was visiting her parents attended her. She was making satisfactory progress last evening.

The tide was on the make when the accident occurred, and was about half in. Had it been full tide she would have fallen into the water. Miss Ockenden was very fortunate in that Messrs Hobson and Wilson were on the small beach, because her cries would have been inaudible from the main beach. Had she fallen on any other part of her body than on her feet she must have received severe injuries, and the" men who found her were amazed that she had not been more seriously hurt. When Mr Wilson went to the spot where the accident occurred two hours later, the fox terrier was still looking round the place, and growled at him. However, he put it into his car and returned it to the girl’s home at Scarborough.