WOMAN’S LIFE SAVED.

Matamata Record, Volume XIII, Issue 1110, 31 March 1930, Page 6

WOMAN’S LIFE SAVED.

AIRMAN TO THE RESCUE. [ f At Malange, in the north-central part of Angola, the Portuguese West African possession, Mrs Wengatz, who has made herself universally respected by her work as a missionary, $ recently had a terrible experience I leading to a splendid fight by a South African airman. At mid-day, when the main street was • well filled, a mad dog rushed down the roadway frenziedly snapping right and left. The panic-strick-en natives rushed indoors. Then down the street came Mrs Wengatz wondering at its emptiness, before she could be warned the dog had sprung at her and had bitten her arm. At once the people rallied, and the dog was quickly put out of its misery. > Safety of the missionary could only be found in an injection of Pasteur’s serum against hydrophobia, and the nearest place where the serum could be obtained was Capetown, 1500 miles away. A message from Malange to Loanda was cabled to the Bishop of the American Episcopal Church at Capetown, and the serum was obtained by the Government Bacterological Bureau there, and was quickly despatched by train to the Bargawanath aerodrome outside Johannesburg, 1000 miles away. The precious serum was confided to Lieutenant Rodwell King to carry it in his Moth ’plane, first across South-west Africa to Windhoek and then jiorthward to Loango, 250 miles from Malange. In all, there and back, this would involve a lonely journey of nearly 6000 miles. The journey was accomplished, and Lieutenant King returned safely to Johannesburg. The gallant airman

had surmounted many dangers. The worst was when he was over dense forest land, in the northern part of South-west Africa. Night was coming on; he was short of petrol; and he was bound to land. He found a little piece of handy ground on the bank of a river and manged to come down on it uninjured, but it was so small that he could not get run enough to rise, and he had to take his machine to pieces and have it carried 14 miles along narrow forest footpaths before he could find sufficient ground for a start.