DOUBLE DROWNING TRAGEDY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 86, 27 March 1926, Page 4

DOUBLE DROWNING TRAGEDY.

WANGANUI SENSATION. Wanganui, March 26. A sensation was caused at midday wxlay, when a man, at present um known* jumped from the town bridge about midway. Three men in the vicinity immediately entered the river, one of these being W. Hamilton, a youth of 19, and one an A.B. from the steamer Invercargill. Hamilton was seen to swim in the direction of the man, wno was still floating. When carried down opposite the Ngatiawa, berthed below the Invercargill, he suddenly sank. Another man, N. Rowe, got out as far as the person who jumped off the bridge, but was unable to retain a hold of him and the latter sank. The incident was marked by extraordinary features. As yet the identity of the man who made the tragic leap from the town bridge is not definitely established, but it is believed by the police to be Alexander Mitchell, horse t r anier, who is missing and. whose so*/s are assisting in the search for the body. Mitchell was recently concerned in a case in which he claimed over £2OOO damages for an alleged breach of contract in connection with th* lease of the racing filly Demure. His case failed. Before noon yesterday Mitchell approached a man nam«;d Young at the city end ol the bridge, asking him for a piece of lead and a rope. Young asked what for and Mitchell said to catch a colt, xoung complied and MitrJiell, saying “I’ll fix it,*’’ departed across the bridge. Shortly afterwards a man assumed to be Mitchell climbed the parapet of the footbridge which runs beside t«o traffic bridge and jumped 25 feet into the river. Th© only ones who saw this r . were some distance away. Though tne bridge is near the centre of the city few were about at the time. However, the man’s plight in the water was soon seen and three men. William Hamilton, N. Rowe and A. Noyer, plungecf in to assist. These were on the town wharf side and the drowning man was on the far side of the river, so tne rescuers had some distance to swim. A strong ebb tide was running and the water was very cold owing to a recent flood. Hamilton and Noyer were both seamen on the s.s. Invercargill. Rowe is a watersider. Hamilton, a strong swimmer, got out in the current and then appealed tor help and suddenly sank, presumably attacked by cramp. A boat, was launched from the steamer Ngatiawa and almost reached him before he sank. Meanwhile Noyer returned to tho shore, but Rowe reached the body of the drowned man. Unfortunately he was too exhausted to hold the body upland himself was in a bad way when rescued by a boat from the Invercargill. Subsequently Rowe was sent to hospital, but is now progressing web. Neither the body of the man who suicided nor that of Hamilton has been recovered. Hamilton w*as a popular lad of 19. His parents reside at Newtown, Wellington. Singular features of the tragedy are that it was enacted within a stone’s throw of the busiest part of . the city and over 100 people wore quickly collected on the bridge and the wharf and watchedw Hamilton go to his death in the effort to save the man who leaped from the bridge.