DANGEROUS LAKE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22825, 9 March 1936, Page 15

DANGEROUS LAKE

Foolish conduct of men going on a lake which was notoriously dangerous and had claimed many victims was commented upon by the coroner (Mr S. A. H. Burue) at the inquest on Arthur Birks and Douglas Rutter, two unemployed Hanley labourers, who were drowned while sliding on the frozen Rudyard Lake, A verdict of accidental death was recorded. When the coroner asked if warning notices would save other skaters, he was told that such steps would be useless, as visitors also took risks in summer by bathing, and cyclists near the lakeside on the narrow path. The coroner said it could not be too widely known how dangerous the lake was, and the risk of going on its frozen surface, unless the weather was abnormally cold. The police stated that the men had met their death because they reached a point where the current made the ice weak. The lake was noted for these currents, which were caused by springs. The men were missed by friends staying on holiday with them at a Rudyard bungalow. Eventually a police officer traced their footprints across the snow-covered ice and found a hole in the ice at a spot where the water was 30 feet deep.