DROWNING AT BROAD BAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24833, 5 February 1942, Page 8

DROWNING AT BROAD BAY

A verdict of accidental drowning was returned by the coroner, Mr H. W, Bundle, S.M., at the conclusion yesterday of the inquest concerning the death of Robert Davidson, aged six years, who fell from a boat into the harbour alongside the wharf at Broad Bay on January 18. The police were represented by Sergeant Conway. The evidence of John Hutchinson, with whom Davidson was playing, showed that the boys went to the Broad Bay wharf, where Davidson climbed into a boat from which he fell. Hutchinson ran home and told his mother, who summoned aid. Mrs Hutchinson said that she would not have allowed the children to go near the wharf had she known that it was their intention (o do so. In fact, she had warned them against going there. Evidence was also given by John Hore, who said that, when the alarm was given he jumped into the water and found the body lying at a depth of six or eight feet. He recovered the body and assisted ambulance men to apply artificial respiration until Dr A. A. Reid arrived.

After giving his verdict the coroner expressed sympathy with the parents of the boy in the distressing tragedy that had befallen them, and he also complimented Mr Hore on his prompt actiqn.