CAR TRAGEDY

Grey River Argus, 15 August 1944, Page 4

CAR TRAGEDY

FARMER DROWNED.

P.A. WANGANUI, August 14. With the assistance of a diver from New Plymouth, a motor-car . which plunged into the Wanganui River on Saturday afternoon, about six miles from the city, was recovered late this afternoon by a police party working aboard the paddle steamer, ‘ Waimarie.” With much difficulty the car was towed across the river, deep under the water, and eventually was haitled ashore on a sloping sandy bank, and the body of the driven Robert William Orton, aged 59, a wellknown Wanganui farmer, was found in the back seat. The car apparently had plunged from the road along which it was being driven by Orton on Saturday afternoon, and dropped nearly fifty feet. It was eventually found in thirty feet of water, lodged between two papa ledges. All ths windows were broken, and Orton had been drowned.