TRYING EXPERIENCE

Southland Times, Issue 25343, 23 July 1935, Page 7

TRYING EXPERIENCE

INJURED MAN ON LAUNCH. TRIP FROM GREAT BARRIER. (Per United Press Association.) Auckland, July 22. Bringing to Auckland in his launch Ocean Queen a man injured on the Great Barrier, Mr A. Blackwell experienced the worst trip of his 45 years experience of the gulf and coast. Mr Blackwell left Whangapara yesterday afternoon at 4 o’clock and arrived in Auckland this morning at 11 o’clock. His passenger was W. Monaghan, an employee of the Kauri Timber Company, who while working in the bush at the back of Whangapara on Saturday afternoon, caught his thumb in wire and lacerated it badly. He was taken to hospital on arrival in Auckland. As soofi as the accident happened, Mr Blackwell was communicated with at his home at Tryphena, where he owns a farm. The weather then, however, was too bad for him to attempt to leave that port and it was not until yesterday afternoon that he was able to make Whangapara. In the meantime the injured man was made as comfortable as possible. “It was the worst trip I have ever made/’ Mr Blackwell said. “Not only was there a gale blowing, but it was hardly possible to see your hand in front of your face. We had to steer by the compass. A trip that usually takes me six hours at the most, and I have done it hundreds of times, took me 11 hours, and even then we had to put into shelter under Coromandel Peninsula last night.”