A NIGHT’S EXPOSURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20319, 30 January 1928, Page 11

A NIGHT’S EXPOSURE.

ELDERLY WOMAN’S EXPERIENCE. (Special to Daily Times.) CHRISTCHURCH, January 28. Bruised and scratched and suffering from the shock of a fall down a steep bank, Mrs E. Hempstalk, a Lyttelton woman, aged 73, lay on the rocks 600yds from the Diamond Harbour jetty from about 5.30 last evening until 1 o’clock this morning while search parties scoured the neighbourhood. Mrs Hempstalk, who lives at Salt’s Gully, Lyttelton, spent the afternoon at Diamond Harbour with her daughter-in-law, Mrs R. Hempstalk, and in her anxiety not to miss the ferry launch at Lyttelton at 5.30 p.m, the elder woman was hurrying along some distance in front of the younger. She got out of the beaten track and, slipping on the pine needles, was precipitated over a steep bank, receiving 1 several cuts and bruises. The shock of the fall was so great as to render her incapable of calling for When the younger woman reached the jetty she was surprised to find linn .<n., Hempstalk was missing. She ran back to look for her, but an hour’s search was fruitless, and by this time the 6.30 o’clock boat, the last that evening, had left for Lyttelton. Mr R. Hempstalk, the son of tho missing woman, who lives at Lyttelton, was communicated with by telephone from Godley House, and after procuring a special boat and a search party of about a dozen persons, he set out for Diamond Harbour. On arrival the party was joined by about 20 residents of Diamond Harbour." A search over a radius of a mile or more failed to find the missing woman, and she was not discovered until 1 o’clock this morning, when the son of Mr Paine, of Godley House, found her lying on the rocks about 600yds from the jetty. On arrival at Lyttelton, Mrs Hempstalk was given medical attention, and is progressing satisfactorily. I Frank Coffey, a Lyttelton man. who j was a member of the search nnrtv, fell over a declivity about 10ft high in the darkness, and received a deep gash in the back of his head. He also had to receive medical attention.