CORPORAL PRAISED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24993, 13 August 1942, Page 6

CORPORAL PRAISED

RECOVERY OF BOY'S BODY INQUEST ON CLIFF FATALITY " I would like to express the gratitude of the police for the manner in which Lance-corporal F. McFarlane carried out the difficult and dangerous task in connection with the recovery of the boy's body," stated Sergeant A. Stark, at the inquest yesterday before Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., sitting as coroner, into the death of the 15-year-old schoolboy, Robert Thomas Dow, who fell down a cliff near Smaill's Beach on the afternoon of Sunday, August 2. Sergeant Stark explained that, had it not been for the efforts of Lancecorporal McFarlane and others, the body might not have been recovered for months, or even at all. "They risked their lives in recovering the body," he added, " and this fact ought to bring . home to all the need for taking the greatest care when walking along such dangerous places." Evidence was given by Robert Lansley Falconer, aged 18, and Stanley John Balchin, aged 16, to the effect that in the course of a walk on Sunday, August 2, they had accompanied the deceased and other youths to the cliff overlooking Smaill's Beach. They decided to descend the face of the cliff, and had gone down about 50 feet when Dow missed his footing, and after sliding down for some distance was shot off a ledge into the air and landed on the flat of his back on a larger ledge about 100 feet further down, and disappeared from view. They eventually got in touch with the military authorities. Sergeant Stark said that the cliff where the fatality took place was at least 700 feet high. The deceased had a broken back, a broken neck, and other injuries. The coroner, finding that the deceased met his death by accidentally falling over a>'cliff, referred to the praise by Sergeant Stark concerning the assistance given by Lance-corporal McFarlane and others to the police in the dangerous task of recovering the body. He also stressed the folly of attempting to descend such a dangerous cliff. _____