SAD BOATING TRAGEDY

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1927, Page 11

SAD BOATING TRAGEDY

THREE children drowned CAPSIZE OF A FRAIL CRAFT. SHOCKING CASE AT WOOLSTON. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. A shocking drowning tragedy occurred at Woolston this afternoon, resulting in the death of' three boys. The names of the victims are John Downing, aged 11. George Eden, aged 8, and Alexander Eden, aged 6. Sometime between 4 and 4.30 p.m. the boys took an old boat which was lying in the Heathcote River near the tramway tanks, and set out for a row, but they had only a few inches of freeboard and, according to the statement of a little girl who first gave the alarm, it had not gone far before it capsized and disappeared. The girl May Downing, aged 6, a sister of the eldest boy in the boat, was apparently the only person who witnessed the tragedy, and she at once ran to the home of her parents at 613 Ferry Road, and gave the alarm. The parents rushed to the river bank but there was no sign of the beys or the boat. The police were immediately notified and some time elapsed before a boat and crew could be obtained to search (ho river with drag hooks. However the search eventually proceeded about four or five chains downstream, when the body of George Eden was recovered.

The rising tide compelled the abandonment of further search. To-morrow morning it is expected that the other two bodies and the boat will be recovered.