WAITOTARA TRAGEDY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19769, 10 April 1934, Page 6

WAITOTARA TRAGEDY

BODIES OF MAORIS NOT YET FOUND. By Telegraph—Press Association ’ WANGANUI, April 10. No trace has yet been found of the bodies of the two Maoris—Maketu Wereta and Harold Hakaraia —who were lost as a result of a boating mishap off the mouth of the Waitotara river some time between Thursday and Friday last. The body of Thomas Alexander McLean, the third member of the party, was found at midnight on Saturday, and although clad only in a shirt it is fairly certain that he was in the boat at the time of the accident. His scanty attire led to the belief that he might have been en-

gaged in, the task of rescuing the other two and had swum from the shore in an attempt to do so. Residents who are well acquainted with the habits of the trio state that it was the practice of McLean to put to sea clothed with little more than a shirt. Wereta leaves five children, the eldest of whom is 14, and Hakaraia one young child. At the inquest into the death of McLean conducted at Waitotara to-day a verdict was returned of accidental drowning, there being no evidence to show how he got into the water. The evidence showed that he left Waitotara on Wednesday night to go fishing and the two Maoris followed about mid-day next day. The clothes of all three were found neatly placed in a rough sort of camp near the mouth of the river and in which they stored nets and other gear.