DROWNING ACCIDENT NEAR HELENSVILLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9064, 26 May 1888, Page 5

DROWNING ACCIDENT NEAR HELENSVILLE.

Inspector Broham yesterday received a report from Constable Foreman, stationed at Helensvillc, of the circumstances attending the death by drowning of a man named Michael Kenny. The constable also forwarded the statements of two men—Thos. Lyons and Frank Rodgers—who were with deceased at the time o? the accident. The facts appear to be as follow • Tho threo men left Helensvillo about eleven o'clock on the morning of the 24th, intending to go to Tauhoa. They were in a 5-ton half-decked boat, and when about six miles from Helensville the boat grounded. They pushed her off, and had baroly got under way again when a squall struck her, causing the back halyards to break and let the sail down. As it fell Kenny (who was at the time sitting in the centre of the boat) rose, and losing his balance fell overboard. Rodgers tried to seize him, but failed to do so, and Kenny drifted past the boat, and before tho boat could be got round to him he sank and was not seen again. There was a strong current running at the time, and this with the squall and useless sail rendered the boat unmarvagable, and Lyons and Rodgers were unable to find the body, which had not been recovered when the report wart sent off. Deceased was an Irishman, about forty years of age, and, it is thought, a single man. Ho had a fow days previously arrived in Ilelensville from Hobaonville in . search of work. !