DROWNED WHILE FISHING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17277, 29 September 1919, Page 6

DROWNED WHILE FISHING.

FATALITY AT DEVONPORT.

BOY'S BODY RECOVERED.

The body of a boy, identified as Edward William Kershaw, son of Mrs. Douglas David Nash, of 218, Hobson Street, was recovered from the harbour, just off Victoria Wharf, Devonport, ear"/ on Saturday morning. The body is, it is thought, identical with that seen floating in the harbour on the morning of September 14. It was seen on Saturday by a fisherman named Gallaugher and brought ashore by Sergeant Baskerville, of the Devonport police. At an inquest held before the coroner, Mr. J. E. Wilson, S.M., at the morgue on Saturday afternoon, the deceased's mother said she last saw her son alive at 11 a.m. on September 14. He then left with a boy named Frank Rees to catch the 11.30 a.m. ferry boat in order to go fishing at Devonport. He was a healthy lad. He could not swim.

As the inquest was then adjourned no further evidence was available, but according to the police report the two boys commenced fishmg at Devonport at about noon on the day in question. After about half an hour, the deceased went down the eastern steps on the Devonport Wharf to try his luck there. About fifteen minutes later, when Rees went to find his companion, he could discover no trace of him. As he had heard no cry, he concluded that Kershaw had gone into Devonport. He did not reappear, so Rees and his mother, thinking that Kershaw had gone home, went back to Auckland.