RIVER ACCIDENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXX, Issue 8623, 26 October 1888, Page 5

RIVER ACCIDENT.

LOSS OF FIVE LIVES. [Per Press Association.] INVERCARGILL. Oct. 25. A lamentable accident occurred this morning at Matama Island, in the river of that name. A man named Andrew M‘Farlane,.a ploughing contractor residing at Edendale, having got employment at tbe Otara Dairy Factory, near Fortrose, started with a two-horse team for his new location yesterday, taking with him his household effects, his wife and child, and his wife’s brother and sister, together with a boy who had been living with him. They reached the island in the afternoon, crossing the main course of the river on the bridge. The other branch of the stream in ordinary circumstances is shallow, and no bridge is provided, but heavy rains had made it dangerous to cross. M'Farlane, after trying the ford, remained on the island all night. Mr Spratt, a farmer there, advised him not to attempt to pursue his journey that way, but to return and cross the river at Wyndham bridge. M'Farlane demurred to this detour of twenty miles, and early this morning entered the river at the ford. The team had only advanced a few yards when one wheel dropped into a hole. The dray swung round, and the occupants, seated among the furniture, which was not secured, were swept into the river. The lad slipped out of the dray on to a box, on which he safely floated to a point about a quarter of a mile below, where he got ashore. The occurrence was not witnessed by anyone from the banks, but as none of the other five occupants of the dray have been seen since, it is almost certain that all are drowned. The dray did not capsize, and the leader dragged it and the drowned shafter out of the river. None of the bodies have yet been recovered.