PERIL OF OPEN WELLS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21247, 29 July 1932, Page 16

PERIL OF OPEN WELLS

SETTLER'S MISADVENTURE NORFOLK ISLAND FATALITY [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT] NORFOLK ISLAND. July 18 Mr. Joseph Johnson Dickens has been accidentally drowned through falling into a well. Deceased after leaving his horse at the smithy to be shod walked to the house of a neighbouring settler, Mr. Dennehy, to deliver a letter. On bis way back to get his horse he evidently took the wrong turning,. tripped on the edge of an open well, struck his forehead on the stone edge of the opposite side, fell in, and was drowned. When Mr. Dickens did not return for his horse the blacksmith, Mr.» Fear, went in search of him, and then saw the Airedale dog which had been following deceased standing at the edge of the well guarding his master's hat. The dog would allow no one to approach, but with the assistance of Messrs. Hadley and Christy the body was recovered from the well. At the inquest the coroner returned a verdict of accidental death. He added a rider to the effect that the open wells on Norfolk Island were veritable death traps. Legisla ion 6hould be passed to force the owners of uncovsred open wells to fence them. ' 1 Up to the time of his retirement Mr. Dickens was prominent in business circles in Sydney. For over 40 years he was in the employ of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company there. He retired from the. posit'on of manager a few years ago. He recently donated £IOO to the Norfolk Island Hospital. The open wells denounced by the coroner are an ever-present menace to the public. All over the island are the ruins of stone huts, where convicts of better behaviour were allowed to live with their families. In some places are the remains of very large houses, where officials resided. All are now mostly heaps of stones, overgrown and hidden by dense scrub. But to every building there 'was a well, ranging from 50ft. to 180 ft. deep. These wells remain, their tops level with the ground, and nothing whatever to indicate their presence.