BATHING FATALITY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11829, 10 January 1933, Page 5

BATHING FATALITY

WOMAN DROWNED AT KAREKARE SWEPT ROUND TREACHEROUS ROCKS ONLOOKERS POWERLESS TO HELP (Press Association.: AUCKLAND, Jam 9. A score of people urgently summoned to Karekare Beach from a( j" joining accommodation houses tli I s afternoon were witncscs of a bathing fatality, in which Miss Alice Wilson aged 38, of One Tree Hill, lo'st her life. They had to . stand on the beach •powerless to help her, for, by C le Dime they reached the beach, her body was being swept round the treacherous rocks at tlie northern extremity of the hay in a whirlpool of eddying currents and boiling surf. Miss Wilson arrived at Karekare at about 1 o’clock to spend a, fortnight's holiday. Alter lunch she and some other women walked from AVincli olsca House to tlie beach, but Miss Wilson was tbe only member of tlie party to go l'ov a, swim. There was a fairly heavy surf running. After a while, members of the party on the beach noticed that Miss AViison appeared in. difficulties. She was about two or three ehalms from the beach and wa s being carried along rapidly by the tide towards the northern extremity. None of the women on the shore was an exceptionally powerful swimmer and all were fully dressed. One of -the party immediately set out to run back to the accommodation house, a distance of about hall a mile. In answer to her calls for assistance, a, number of boarders immediately rushed down to the heacli. However, when, they arrived, Miss Wilson’s body was being swept round the rocks.

At that stage it would have been practically impossible even for the strongest swimmer to rescue liei. A length of rope had been brought to the beach, but it was too short to enable anyone to swim out with ia and reach the struggling swimmer. The little group had to stand by helpless. Beyond thee rocks at the northern end of the beach, cliffs stretch for some distance, rising almost sheer from the water. Flour men set off to walk overland to Mercer Bay in the hope that Miss Wilson’s body might be swept in there by the tide and they were followed by Constable Rushton, of Henderson, who had been summoned by telephone.

Shortly after the party reached Mercer Bay the body was brought in by the tide and they managed to drag it ashore. Artificial respiration was applied, but life was already extinct. Owing to the fact that the tide was coming in quickly, the rescue party had to make a hurried departure from Mercer Bay to avoid being trapped.