ACCIDENTS AND TRAGEDIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 October 1945, Page 2

ACCIDENTS AND TRAGEDIES

SOLDIER* KILLED WELLINGTON, October 22. Lance-Bombardfer Desmond M. Bollons died in the Wellington Hospital early this morning. He was in a car which struck a car pylon in Customhouse quay at 2 a.m. . A companion, L. Paul, of Hataitai, a cheniist, suffered concussion and facial injuries. His condition is satisfactory. Lance-Bombardier Bollons was a son of the late Captain John Bollons, a former master of the Tutanekai.

BARMAN’S COLLAPSE ■ NAPIER, October 22. News that he had won a sum, stated to be £4OO, on a “treble” he had at the Trentham race meeting is believed to have caused the death of„ Mr. Robert Maree, aged 45, single, a barman at the Clarendon Hotel, Napier, on Saturday afternoon. Mr. Maree, who was of Greek- descent, was stated to have been suffering from a weak heart for a number of years and had had several seizures, for which he was under medical attention. Mr. Maree had heard over the radio in the bar where he was working that the first two “legs” of his “treble” had been successful, and .when the third race in which he was interested, the Shorts Handicap, was run. his win depended upon the success of Reorapa. The broadcast indicated that there was a doubt whether Reorapa had won, necessitating a brief delay before the numbers went up. Just after Reorapa’s name was announced as the winner of the race Mr. Maree collapsed and died in the crowded bar.

VICTIMS TO DROWNING. AUCKLAND, October 21., In attempting to recover a dinghy which broke away from his yacht, a youth was drowned at Waiheke Island on Saturday. He was William Edward Lawrence, aged 19, of -St. Helier’s Bay. WANGANUI, October 21. A Maori boy, James Toura, aged 10, was drowned in the Wanganui River at the Castlecliff wharf early on Saturday evening. The crew of the steamer Foxton heard the sound of a splash and noticed a bicycle on the wharf and it was assumed that the rider had fallen over the edge of the wharf. The police recovered the body an hour later. NEW PLYMOUTH, Oct. 22. Seen lying at the water’s edge, the body of Clifford Rowe Tuffery, aged eight, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Tuffery, New Plymouth, was recovered near the mouth of the Oakura river to-day, but though the child had been in the water only a short time, attempts at artificial respiration failed. How the child got into the surf is not known.