YOUNG MAN DROWNED

Southland Times, Issue 23394, 29 December 1937, Page 6

YOUNG MAN DROWNED

LIFE LOST IN ATTEMPT TO HELP WIFE (United Press Association) ROTORUA, December 28. A drowning occurred in the Waikato river today between, Huka Falls and Aratiatia Rapids when a young man named Frederick Wilson, employed in the joinery department of the Fletcher Construction Company,/Auckland, lost his life. Wilson was a member of a camping party and is understood to have been a poor swimmer. He was standing on the bank when he saw that his wife, who was with several other members of the party bathing in the river, was in difficulty. He immediately plunged in to her help but was swept away by the current. Other members of the party threw a lifebelt which was on the bank to Mrs Wilson and succeeded in dragging her ashore but by that time Wilson had disappeared. Constable McNulty was summoned from Taupo and the body was recovered late in the afternoon. LIFE LOST WHILE FISHING (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, December 28. A drowning occurred at Pifya this afternoon when an Auckland resident, William John Shaw, aged 53, of Kingsland, was apparently washed off Lion Rock into deep water. Shaw had been staying at a bach at Piha and went fishing from the northern side of the rock. Two and a-half hours later some people who were on the beach noticed something was floating in the water and attracted the attention of the surf patrol, a member of which swam out from the beach for 130 yards where he found Shaw’s coat floating. Thirty yards further he discovered the body floating. It was quickly brought to the shore by a life line and attempts at resuscitation were maintained for a considerable time but without success. BLACKSMITH IKILLED IN COLLISION (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, December 28. Within 100 yards of his home, C T. Elwin, of Jersey avenue, Mt. Albert, was killed about 12.45 o’clock this afternoon when a five-seater sedan car he was driving came into violent collision with a north-bound train at the Woodward road railway crossing. The car was struck near the driver’s seat, carried along the line and thrown about 75 feet from the roadway. The car was wrecked. Elwin, a young man, was a blacksmith at the Otahuhu railway workshops. FATAL FALL FROM TRAIN (United Press Association) DUNEDIN, December 28. A fatality occurred on the Otago Central railway line this afternoon when Henry Pritchard, aged 74, a retired harbour board employee, who resided at Port Chalmers, fell from the Cromwell-Dunedin express and suffered extensive injuries from which he died. The accident occurred about 2.40 o’clock when the train was passing Matarae, Pritchard apparently falling from the carriage platform. He was accompanied by a son and a daughter, and was seen on the platform a few minutes before he was missed.