ATTACKED BY A SHARK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16300, 5 August 1916, Page 9

ATTACKED BY A SHARK.

OLD COLONIST'S ADVENTURE.

The late Mr. Thomas Cooke, of Ponsonby, who died yesterday, was one of the few people who have" been attacked by a shark in New Zealand. In a letter written to his father in. 1863, and discovered amongst the hitter's effects 50 years later, Mr. Cooke described his adventure.

One morning he went down to the harbour to bathe as usual, and while swimming felt his foot touch what he took to be a submerged log, and the next minute felt his left foot seized. Ho struggled and managed to break away, but after swimming a few strokes he was seized again by the right thigh and dragged under the water. He continued struggling, and after some time was successful in breaking away from what he now knew to be a shark. Fortunately he was only a short distance from the shore and, although suffering intense agony, no was able to swim to safety. Arriving at the beach, he discovered the blood gushing from his foot, thigh, and back. After a while he was seen by some men, and taken home. Describing his injuries, Mr Cooke said: "My left foot was horribly mangled, being bitten through and through at the instep, the great toe was severed nearly in two, besides several other wounds in it; in my right thigh. near the knee, there was a dreadful wound, there was another in the middle of the thigh in front, and a similar one behind, a smaller wound in the groin, and another in the back." As a resuit of his injuries, Mr. Cooke was very ill, ind the doctors despaired of his 'life,' but after six weeks be was able to resume business. While he was laid up the Governor, Sir George Grey, called to inquire after him. In the same letter Mr. Cooke mentions a fire, which he said was the largest that had occurred in lackland up to that time.