FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 858, 10 August 1888, Page 15

FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT.

A WELL-KNOWN STOREKEEPER DROWNED. ’S ' >. ■ SS. (per press association.) Auckland, August 4. A telegram received in town states that George Wyatt, a storekeeper at Kawerua, twelve miles south of Hokianga, has been drowned. Kawerua is a gum digging,settlement on the open sea coast, and Mr Wyatt has been in the habit of conveying his gum and stores by boat to Hokianga harbour, pushing out through the surf, which on this stormy coast is always attended with great danger, and no doubt Mr Wyatt has met his death in one of these perilous expeditions.

Mr T. W. Lewis, Under-Secretary for Native Affairs, kindly places the following information at our service : —On Saturday afternoon Mr H. W. Bishop, R.M ,at Mon* gonui, wired to say that Mr George Wyatt, the storekeeper at Kawerua, went out fishing that morning with three Natives when the boat oapsized and Wyatt was drowned. The three Natives were stated to be clinging to the boat out at sea. The weather was so rough and the sea so high, that no communication could be held with them from shore. The steam launch at Hokianga could not get out across the bar, and all boats ai-e powerless. The only hope of saving the men would be by a steamer from Manulcau or. Kaipara. Mr Lewis at once wired to Auckland to get a steamer sent to the rescue of the men, and at 3.30 yesterday morning the steamer Rowena left Onehunga for the Beene of tho disaster. Later on Mr Lewis received a telegram from Mr W. H. Bishop to the effect that bo had heard from Constable Wai d, dated Kawerua, Sunday, 1.30 a.m., stating that Wyatt and a Native named Te Morenga wore drowned. Two persons were saved, Ringi Rawinanui, a Native, and Tai Raiwhai, a half-caste. The latter two were many hours in the water, and were considerably knocked about. Wyatt cluDg to the boat for half-an-hour and was then washed off. Ho could not swim. The people on shore were powerless to keep their boats from being smashed up in the surf. The constable in his telegram did not state how the two men were saved, bub it is presumed they clung to the boat, which must have bean gradually washed ashore. A later telegram from Rawene says—- “ Two men drowned and two saved. The boat drifted over a mile north, and then drifted in shore with the flood tide. One man stuok to it till it smashed up on the rocks.’ Auckland, August 6. . Later particulars respecting the boat.accident at Kawera on Saturday, states that George Wyatt and three Natives put off in a small boat to fish. There was a nasty break on, but they succeeded in elesrieg two or three seas, when a tremendous roller, described a 3 being a wall of water 20 feet high, struck and capsized her. One of the Natives swam ashore. The others clung to the boat. A breaker struck the boat when Wyatt went under, and he was not seen again, being evidently killed by the boat striking him. One of the Natives was with difficulty rescued. He is terribly mangled, and is scarcely expected to live. The other was dashed against the rocks, and killed, being no more seen. Another account says Wyatt clung to the boat for half.an-hour and was then washed off. A telegram to Inspector Broham, from Constable Ward, says that sometimes the people on shore could almost touch the drowning man, when the backward rush of the sea would carry him away again.