CUT OWN LEG OFF

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11828, 9 January 1933, Page 5

CUT OWN LEG OFF

STOICISAI OF AIAORI

BUSH-FELL! N G A CCIDENT

(Press Association.)

RAAVENE, Jan. 6

J. Henry, a Maori, of Rangialmu, now an inmate of the Rawene Hospital, has been through all experience in which he exhibited stoic endurance that must have few parallels in the history of pioneering.

AVliile lie was felling hush in the hack country behind Rangialmu, a tree, in falling, hit another tree, and. sliding back on its stump, pinned Air. Heuiy by the leg against the trunk of a tree.

"When the tree jammed my 'eg,’’ said Air. Henry, “I could not move, but I could look down and see rny leg being slowly crushed to pulp. Gradually the tree rolled over and freed my leg, and I then crawled to the top of the hill, and called to my mate who was a few chains away. A\ he.n ho came, I sent him to get my dinner bag, and I. took out the dinner knife and cut off the crushed leg. AVe used our belts and tied them as tightly as possible above the knee. I then got on my mate’s hack and he carried me out of the bush. It was a terrible journey. My dog stayed behind, and when my mate went hack two days later to bury the leg he was still guarding it and the dinner bags.” Air. Henry is now rapidly recovering.