UNKNOWN MAN DROWNED AT SUMNER.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 13 December 1935, Page 5

UNKNOWN MAN DROWNED AT SUMNER.

REFUSED BOYS’ HELP UNTIL TOO LATE CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. A man was drowned while bathing at Sumner this afternoon. The body has not yet been recovered. Nothing was found in his clothing by which ho could be identified. The available evidence is that he was middle-aged, dark complexion and medium build. Owing to the state of (he tide the current was running along the beach making bathing dangerous except for expert swimmers. This man was seen to be in dillicullies by three boys, Douglas Wethey, Tony Cook and Gordon Dalzell, all junior members of the Sumner Life Saving Club. They immediately went to his assistance but the man refused the boys’ aid saying he could swim. The hoys were not easy about the man’s position and were not surprised when a few minutes later the man was sc . to be obviously in dilliculties. Again the boys went to help him and while Wethey and Dalzcll supported him Cook went ashore for the life line. Wethey and Danzell found the man’s weight too much for them and they were relieved by another boj', Herbert Stevens. Stevens kept the man afloat for a time, but when the man’s struggles immersed thorn both several times Stevens was forced to let go. In the meantime Wethey, Cook, Dalzell and C. Mortimer had run out the life line but the man had disappeared. A search for the body continued all the afternoon unsuccessfully.