DROWNED IN HARBOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22399, 21 April 1936, Page 8

DROWNED IN HARBOUR

ELDERLY WIDOW'S FATE FALL FROM WESTERN WHARF RECOVERY OF THE BODY Believed to have sslipped and fallen into the harbour while walking over a pile of coal at the edge of Western "Wharf, an elderly widow, Mrs. Ellen Mary Madigan, of 115 Franklin Road, Ponsonby, was drowned shortly before seven o'clock last night. Mrs. Madigan had been walking along the wharf, while two friends, Mr. W. P. Cronin, of Onehunga, and Mr. L. Duran, of Ponsonby, were on board a fishing craft tied to the wharf, Mr. Duran being caretaker of the boat. After he had been on the vessel a few minutes Mr. Cronin went bark to the wharf and saw that Mrs. Madigan wag missing.

Flashing his electric torch over the water, Mr. Cronin saw Mrs. Madigan's body floating face downward about 20 feet from the wharf. It was drifting in the direction of the adjoining western reclamation., With the assisttance of Mr. J. L. Hurrell, Mr. Cronin secured a punt and recovered the body. In the meantime another passer-by had called Constable T. Agnew, of the Freeman's Bay station, and the constable and Mr. Hurrell applied artificial respiration without result. Dr. J. P. Hastings was called and pronounced life extinct.

At the part of the wharf where Mrs. Madigan was walking there is a pile of fairly loose coal, and it is thought that she slipped in the coal and fell over the low curbing of the wharf.