A NEAR TRAGEDY

Southland Times, Issue 20146, 5 April 1927, Page 8

A NEAR TRAGEDY

UNSUNG LOCAL HERO. The placid waters of the Puni Creek, shimmering in the rays of the autumnal sun, were, on Sunday, the scene of an accident which but for the prompt action of a male citizen of the borough, might have terminated fatally. Rendered drowsy by the seductive strains of the Civic Band parked in the Rose Gardens, and finally lulled into the soft arms of Morpheus by the droning of a near-sighted bumble-bee which mistook his ruddy nasal organ for some nec-tar-laden bloom, this unrewarded hero was roused to consciousness by the shriek of a female in distress. Loosening his necktie with one hand and searching in his waistcoat pocket for his toothpick with the other, he sat upright and was horrified to see a pram run down the bank and fall with a sickening splash into the swirling waters. For a moment it rose to the surface and then slowly subsided and lay on the bed of the stream. The situation was desperate, so, retaining his nether garments (to the relief of a large gathering of excited onlookers) he plunged headlong into the seething torrent and brought the pram ashore. Alas, the two occupants, tiny mites, twins be it mentioned, wen* missing, but dashing the water from his eyes he plunged in again and soon saw them rolling over and over in the water. They were quickly seized and brought ashore and deposited in the arms of their hysterical nurse. It was, however, over twenty minutes before the maternal sobbing had abated sufficiently to allow the scantily clad dolls to be placed once more in their roomy, if waterlogged, conveyance.