Accident at Wyndham Valley.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 212, 7 November 1896, Page 3

Accident at Wyndham Valley.

— «. WONDERFUL ESCAPE FROM DROWNING. Mr J. Y. Cook, farmer, Mokoreta, met with a sarions mishap on Tuesday morning, says the ' Wyndham Farmer,' by which he barely escaped with his life. It appears that he set out in a spring cart for "Wyndham, and attempted to cross the Wyndham river at McLaren's Ford, just below the pile bridge. The stream was considerably swollen, and be/ore he got across it his horse was swept off its legs. The animal drifted down the stream, Mr Cook, who could not swim, in the meanwhile sticking to the trap until it struck a boulder a few yards below the ford, when he was pitched out. He .was thrown on top of the horse, and managed td~S*ip hold of the brass rings in the saddle. The horse was soon drowned, but the current swept it on, and Mr Cook was dragged with it for fully half a mile. Fortunately, one of his sons ' * noticed his plight from a paddock alongside the stream, and he gave the alarm to Messrs Alex. MoPherson and E. Coleman (county surfacemen), who were taking shelter from ■ the rain in the former's hut, These two managed to get Csok ashore, and none too soon, for he was quite unconscious, and it was with some difficulty they managed to loosen his hands from the saddle, so tenaciously were they gripping it. Mr Cook was -i taken to Mr McPheraon's hut, where he received every attention, and by the evening was himself again.