RIVER FATALITY
CAMPER DROWNED IN ORETI CAPSIZE OF CANOE While rowing a canoe on the Oreti river about midnight on Saturday, Harold Markham Padget, a cycle mechanic, of Invercargill, was drowned. It appears that Padget caught one of the oars in a shingle bank and in endeavouring to free it, capsized the canoe and was thrown into the water. He was wearing knee gumboots at the time. His companion in the boat, a man named Sherlock, was also thrown into the water, but although not a good swimmer, he was able to scramble safely ashore. Padget was a well-known week-end camper and owned two cribs on the Oreti river near the West Plains bridge. Accompanied by three companions on Saturday night, he decided to row up the river from one crib to the other to get some supper. Padget and Sherlock occupied one canoe, and the two others the second boat. Padget and Sherlock’s boat was behind the other and just at the junction of the Oreti and' Makarewa rivers one of Padget’s oars struck the bank of shingle. Padget apparently pulled hard to free the oar and the canoe, a light, narrow craft, overturned. Padget and Sherlock were thrown into about eight feet of water. It is not known whether Padget rose after going under or floated downstream. A search was made, but the body was not recovered until yesterday morning. Padget was a single man, 38 years old. He was well-known in sporting circles in Southland, principally as a Rugby player and an angler. He was a member of the Star Rugby Football Club and represented Southland in the 1926 and 1927 seasons. He had been camping on the Oreti river for a number of years. An inquest will be formally opened this morning.
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Bibliographic details
Southland Times, Issue 23375, 6 December 1937, Page 4
Word Count
296RIVER FATALITY Southland Times, Issue 23375, 6 December 1937, Page 4
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