MAORI BOY’S FATAL BURNS

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 May 1936, Page 5

MAORI BOY’S FATAL BURNS

HEROIC ATTEMPT TO RESCUE. [PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WAIROA. May 6. The story of how a Maori was awakened in the middle of Sunday night by screams, how he rushed into a tent and there found a Maori boy sitting up in bed, enveloped in flames; and of how, at the risk of his own life, he rescued the lad and carried him for miles over rough bush tracks in the middle of the'night to a whare, comes from tho Riverina Station in the Marumaru Country, about eight miles from Wairoa.

The boy, who died before he reached the hospital, was George Ihakara Lewis, aged 7 years and 10 months, and the Maori through whose heroicaction the boy was saved from being burnt to death in his bed was Pera Solomon, who, at present, lies in Wairoa County Hospital,' suffering from severe burns.

The scene of the tragedy was a small camp some miles from Riverina homestead, where the boy’s father and Solomon were engaged in scrub cutting. Early on Sunday morning, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, accompanied by their three young children and Solomon, left for the homestead to do some baking. Solomon and the boy went for stores, and returned to the camp where they spent tho afternoon together. The camp consisted of a large tent, where Mr. and Mrs. Lewis and their family slept, and a smaller tent which was used for cooking, and where Solomon slept. There was one bunk in the smaller tent, and as Mr and Mrs Lewis had left the camp, Solomon and the boy turned in together in the sitme bed. Before going to bed, precautions were taken to put the fire out with water, and Solomon, who said he was very tired, soon dropped off to sleep.

Apparently the boy could not get to sleep, for shortly after he left Solomon, and went into the larger tent. Some hours later, Solomon was awakened by screams, and on jumping out of bed, discovered that the large tent was ablaze. Tearing aside the flap, he rushed into the tent and there saw the boy Lewis sitting up in the bed, which was blazing furiously. The boy’s shirt also was ablaze. Fighting his way through the flames Solomon gained the boy’s side, and, picking him up. rushed out into the night. By this time Solomon’s own clothes had caught fire, and he had been' badly burnt about, tho head, face, legs and arms.

With the boy in his arms, and with hardly a stitch of clothing left on his back Solomon then set out to trudge over three miles of badly broken country to the whare where he knew h.e Would meet the boy’s parents. He arrived at the whare in an exhausted state. After doing everything he could to relieve his son’s suffering, MiLewis set out at daybreak for Riverina homestead for the purpose of securing dressings and other assistance. On his arrival back at the whare Mr. Lewis dressed the boy’s burns as best he could, and shortly after the party left for Frasertown, carrying the boy on a roughly-made stretcher. Onl}’ two miles had been covered, however" when the boy died. An inquest was held at Erasertown by the Coroner, Mr. V. E. Winter, who found that death was due to shock, following burns accidentally received, when the boy’s tent caught fire. Solomon was admitted to the hospital last evening in a serious condition, and, according to a report today, he has shown no improvement.