FATAL FALL OF 200 FEET

Taranaki Daily News, 8 October 1929, Page 11

FATAL FALL OF 200 FEET

TRAGEDY AT OHAWE /BEACH ?/ _ h' MAN WALKS OVER CLIFF: EDGE. ' NO SERIOUS INJURIES EVIDENT. Killed apparently through falling over a 200 ft. cliff on to the Obawe beach, Charles Richard Kelly, aged 66 years, was found in some loose sand at the foot of the cliff shortly before seven o’clock yesterday morning. According to a medical prac titioner, death, which appeared to have occurred only a few hours previously, had been the result of shock, as no serious external injury was evident. Between the edge of thecliff and a guard fence there is a strip of high grass, which in places overhangs, and it is thought that Mr. Kelly, who was a metal tally clerk employed by the Hawera County Council, Was walking between the guard fence and the cliff edge when he made a false Step and fell. It-was a habit of his to walk along the cliff edge to view the progress of work on the beach. It appears, from marks on the fftce of the cliff, that his fall was broken by a ledge about 20 feet from the top and by another ledge half-way down. The discovery of the body was made by Mr. R. Hayward, a metal supply contractor, who was’ proceeding to work on the beach. The police were informed and Constables Mullan . and Thomasen visited the scene and had the body removed to Hawera. Mr. W. J. Meyer, .who resides at Ohawe, said that on Saturday afternoon he had spoken to Mr. Kelly, who was a widower and lived alone in a whare on the Ohawe Domain, of which he was caretaker. About--5.30 p.m. on Sunday Mr. and Mrs. Meyer .when walking across the domain noticed that the window blind was not drawn. They also saw a newspaper, which gave .them the impression .that Mr. Kelly was inside reading. Yesterday morning the blind was down so that it appears that Mr. Kelly had been in the whare after Mr. and Mrs. Meyer had passed. . Mr. Kelly had been living in New Zealand for about 21 years, and had been engaged in his duties at Ohawe for some years. He was a native of Ireland and was the eldest son of the late Sir Charles Alymer Kelly, Dublin. His wife died some years ago and his only known relative in the district is a daughter, Mrs. E. Galvin, Hawera.