RESCUE FROM DROWNING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21538, 9 January 1932, Page 6

RESCUE FROM DROWNING

BOY’S PROMPT ACTION VALUE OF LIFE SAVING INSTRUCTION. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, January 8. A smart rescue from drowning in the Hutt River was effected on Wednesday afternoon by Gilbert Daniel, of Lower Hutt. Daniel was one of a party who were swimming just below the Melling bridge, close to which there is a deep hole, and the river being in flood, the current was running rapidly. The party had left the river and gone up the bank to some bushes to dress when wild calls for help reached their ears. Daniel, who is 15 years of age, dashed into the river, where a boy named Maurice Dawson, aged 11 years, not being able to swim, was vainly struggling in a deep hole. Dawson disappeared after his final call for help, but fortunately he came to the surface in an unconscious condition in time for Daniel to seize him before he was swept down the river, Daniel, who refuses to say anything about the incident, stating he did nothing out of the ordinary, had learnt life saving and knew exactly now to handle the boy whom he brought safely ashore, where he recovered consciousness. Another swimmer, Miss Paton, also plunged in to the rescue, but being higher up the river than the boy who was being swept away by the current, did not reach him before he came opposite Daniel. The boy was taken home and is little the worse for his experience. He had been riding a small pony which he had urged into deep water, and was swept off its back by the current.