TE ANAU TRAGEDY

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 104, 2 April 1929, Page 2

TE ANAU TRAGEDY

TWO MEN LOSE THEIR LIVES.

FURTHER PARTICULARS. Per Press Association. INVERCARGILL, April 1. * Further particulars of the Te Anau tragedy received show that the party of four Invercargill men, AVilham Horace Thomas, James Kirkland, William Mapleloft and AVilliam Mayhew, left for Te Anau on Thursday last. AVhenr on Saturday: the patty:took .a boat and went out .on the lake-Sto: fish, Mayhew was left in . charge'of the camp. The site of the. camp was about halfway between' the To Anau Hotel and the mouth, of- the Upukerora River, which enters the lake some three- niiles from the hotel. 'At this point and extending for some distance there is a natural terrace forming. a sudden drop of some eight feet from the surrounding country to the lake shore. The fishermen had made their qamp under the shelter of this bank, and so when the boat, was taken out on to the lake it was obscured from the view of the man in the camp by the higher tussock, and scrub-covered land. . *■ ' . . , ’ Thomas Kirkland. and Mapleloft fowed in a flat-bottomed boat to a spot about a mile from the camp site, and were fishing not more than oOU yards from the shore. The conditions appeared fair when they set out, but when they had got their rods out and had settled down to fish the wind grew stronger. The surface of the lake, quickly grew rough, and the boat was considerably tosed asbout. Suddenly a fiercer squall sprang up. The boat was caught broadside' on by the waves, swamped with water, arid overturned. The three men were thrown into the water. Mapleloft, with a struggle, got hold of the upturned boat-, and clung to it, but could do nothing- to help the others, who after the first struggle sank without rising again. All three men were clad in fishing clothes and were wearing heavy gum boots. The weight of these when they filled with water would make it practicallv impossible to keep afloat, And the drowning men would be unable to discard them because they were attached to the waists by straps. AVhei. Mapleloft finally reached the shore he was still wearing his boots, and even with the aid of the. boat had found the greatest difficult in keeping his head*"above the surface. : . A peculiar feature of the fatality is that Thomas was a particularly powerful swimmer and Kirkland was a very fair swimmer. Both these men wero drowned, yet Mapleloft, who could scarcely swim at all, survived. It was not until some considerable time after tli© others had gone down that Maple-, loft, exhausted witih his struggle, reached the shore, and Mayhew did not know of what had happened until the survivor reached the camp. _ . Anglers who know the lake intimately have oftentimes expressed wonder that even greater loss of life has not been recorded, as at times eight or more visitors have been seen to crowd into a boat capable of seating five, and row out on to the mirror surface of the lake for half a mile or more, and the only reason that they have been able to return safely has been through no wind springing, up from tho narrow gorges through the west side of the lake. Gusty winds spring,up at a moment’s notice, and within » - few minutes the lake becomes very “choppy.”