LEAP TO DEATH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18593, 2 January 1935, Page 4

LEAP TO DEATH

SYDNEY TRAGEDY

HEADLONG DIVE TO ROCKS

Arthur Henry Wood'ger, 46, a crippled Sydney bootmaker, leaped front the cliffs at Bluefish Point, near Fairy Bower,; Manly, last week, after a fisherman had tried to stop him. Woodgcr crashed headlong to the rocks more than 200 ft. below. He was killed instantly, practically every bone in his body being broken. Edward Sly, a Manly fisherman, said he saw Woodger, a powerful man, acting strangely on the edge of the cliffs. Woodger was waving his arms frantically. He moved several times towards the edge, using a stick, and then scrambled back, muttering to himself. “You get away. I’m going over,” he shouted, as Sly approached hint. Mr. Sly made several efforts to grasp Woodger, but the latter, in spite of his deformity, hobbled agilely towards the edge. “Then, turning round, he pushed Mr. Sly backwards and dived over the edge. The fisherman saw him crash on the rocks and' lie in a huddled heap. He then ran to inform the police and ambulance. A police and ambulance party, with the aid of ropes, made a perilous descent. It was impossible to lift the man to the top of the cliff on a stretcher, so a blanket was requisitioned. They had an exceedingly arduous time in scaling the cliffs, and more than an hour elapsed before they reached the top.

Wood'ger was a New Zealander by birth, being a native of Wellington.