FOXTON TRAGEDY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 24 August 1925, Page 9

FOXTON TRAGEDY.

STORY OF AN EYE-WITNESS

AN UNHEEDED WARNING

FOUR BODIES RECOVERED. (BY TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION., PALMERSTON N., Aug. 24, Further details of the drowning fatality at Foxton Heads on Saturday, whereoy a father, his two sons and two daughters lost their lives, were supplied by the Manawatu Standard s Foxton correspondent. They disclose that Thomas Staff, a carpenter, residing at Foxton, assisted by his sons, built a flat-bottomed boat, and decided to try it on the river on Saturday afternoon. Accordingly Staff, who was aged about 42, accompanied by two sons aged 16 and 17-*, and by two daughters aged 13 and 19, left the wharf at Foxton early in the afternoon in ideal weather to run down to the heads on the ebb tide. Apparently all was well till near the bar, when the strength of the el)b tide at the narrowed mouth of the river carried the boat too far. It was swamped just inside the bar, and all the occupants were drowned. The only witness to the tragedy was a Maori woman, Mrs Wade, who states that while gathering pipis near the heads she observed the boat and. its five occupants, apparently all highspirited, approaching the bar at a rapid rate, taking little note of the dangerous bar. The two boys were rowing. Bv the time she realised the danger the" boat was too far away to call out a warning. She continued to watch the boat. It rose at the first, wave on the bar, hut disappeared, through the next wave, when it was apparently half filled with water. The third broke right over, and left no trace of the party. The whole thing was a matter of seconds. Horrified. Mrs Wade rushed up the beach and informed the harbour pilot (Captain Larsen), who set out in a launch, but owing to the heavy sea and the approach of darkness nothing was visible, and he was obliged to return. Captain Larsen says that the river was only about four feet deep at the scene of the tragedy, but the current was too strong for anyone to withstand it. He believed the nartv was unable to see the heavy sea on the bar, owing to the sun’s rftfk'ction on the water, until it was too late. Charles Dawson, a fisherman, observed the party passing down the liver earlier in the afternoon, and called out a warning about the danger of going over the bar if that was contemplated. Mr Staff, senr., replied that he did not know anything about the bar. The boat was then travelling fast-. A search for the bodies on {Saturday night was unavailing. It was. continued on Sundav morning, when the body of Mr Staff, senr., was found a quarter of a mile south of the river on the beach. In the afternoon the body of Dulcie Staff was found on the river bank half a mile inside the bar near the jetty. The bodies of the two boys were found this morning, but the body of the remaining girl is still missing. About 36 years ago Mr Staff, senr.’s, brother and a cousin, named Honore, were drowned while swimming at the wharf at Foxton. Staff had been little on the river since that time. The. father of the deceased Thomas Staff is still living at Wellington. Staff was of a retiring disposition, and was thoroughly respected throughout the district. Widespread sympathy is felt for the widow, who is left with a. son aged 11 and two girls, aged three and five. Two sons of Mr Kennedy and a daughter of Mrs Carmont. of Foxton, were to have accompanied the party in the boat, hut decided at the last minute not to go.