BACK-BLOCK HARDSHIPS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXVIII, 21 June 1912, Page 5

BACK-BLOCK HARDSHIPS.

DISTRESSING ACCIDENT,

BY TELEGBAPH-PEKSB /BSOCJATION.

AUCKLAND, June 20

The hardships the back-blocks settlers have to put up with were forcibly illustrated by a distressing accident that happened to Harry Ricketts, a son of Mr, Rieketts, the well-known storekeeper at Taupo. The young man, who looks after his father's cattle at W'aitangi, on the shores of Lake Tara-

era, was endeavoring to remove an old charge from a gun, and the powder exploded, inflicting a nasty wound in his leg. His only companion, an old Maori, did what he could for the young fellow, and set off through the bush t3 Wairoa for help. Mr A. Warbrick, the guide, happened to be at Wairoa, and immediately set off for Waitangi in a launch. Ricketts was in a pretty bad way from loss of blood, but was eventually brought over the lake, being taken to Rotorua by vehicle and placed in the emergency hospital, where he received medical attention.