FATAL RESULTS OF BATHING IN THE SURF.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 913, 20 March 1879, Page 2

FATAL RESULTS OF BATHING IN THE SURF.

.Napier, Ii larch 10. A fatal accident occurred to a man r.Jiifc'l rilicliaol O'Xeil while in lie surf this morning. It appears de-••.-.sed v:as walking along the bench with :U employer, Mr. J. Hayden. Aftor re_narking on the heat of the day, he said i ii<j would go in for a swim. Mr. Haydcu walked on round the point, and coining j back saw O'lNeil bathing, and his clothes j lying on the beach. There was no un- : luual surf, and ho was iu no apparent ! danger, standing not up to his middle in water as the waves receded, and attempting to swim as they rose. Mr. Hayden toid him to come ashore, but as he paid iv, attuntjan to his sign he walked on. A few minutes afterwards he was met by a i!i:m from the hill,l who asked him if a man was not drowned. They turned back, ;md saw no sign of deceased. The only spectators of the accident appear to have been some boys on the bluff abovo, who at once gave the alarm. The}' say deceased suddenly vanished, and did not rise again. It has been suggested that he was seized by a shark, but this is only conjectured. On information being given to the police, Sergt. O'Mallcy obtained the services of the prisoners to track the beach, and those who cpuld swim went in out in search of the body, but without ' success. Deceased was about 19 years of | :■■_'.-•, ami had only recently arrived by the [sliip City of Auckland. Ho had just 'joined the Napier branch of the Hibernian [ .Society.