FATAL ACCIDENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 68, 4 September 1852, Page 3

FATAL ACCIDENT.

It is our melancholy duty to record another fatal accident caused by the upsetting of a boatj by which two natives and one European have lost their lives. We are informed that five natives and a Mr. and Mrs. Wood left Waikouaiti on Wednesday morning last, with the intention of coming to Dunedin ; the "wind was blowing strong from the North-East, and there was a considerable surf on the bar at the entrance of the harbour. The boat appears, however, to have crossed the bar, and then to have been struck with a sea and capsized. Three of the natives and Mr. Wood swam on shore, but Mrs. Wood and two 'natives were drowned. Mrs. Wood, whose maiden name was Jessie Crawford, came to the colony in the " Phillip Laing," and was married about twelve months since.

The boat was laden with bacon manufactured at Waikouaiti, and the luggage of Mr. Williams and of Mr. Wood, the whole of which has been lost.

Three other boats came safely into the harbour on the same "day; and it would appear that the accident was caused by the natives taking the wrong channel. The tide was ebbing at- the time ; and we have not heard that, the boat or the bodies of the unfortunate people have been recovered.