FOR THE CHILDREN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12707, 31 July 1919, Page 7

FOR THE CHILDREN.

THE BOY AND THE KITTEN. RISKS HIS LIFE TO SAVE IT. Small hoys in North Alelbournc were much perturbed recently when they learned that a kitten belonging to one of them had fallen down the new flood main in 'Errol Street. They‘could see the kitten but could not get it out, bo they fed it for days by -dropping food down the shaft- The children were deeply sympathetic, bub felt powerless to release the kitten, until Norman Knowdes, aged eleven, son of Air Sydney Knowles, Arden Street, North Melbourne, seeing where the kitten was, went to the surface opening of the underground drain. He was warned by his companions not to go. They told him that he might not get out again, that there would he gas in the drain, and ho might be suffocated, but be persisted- He crawled under the flagstone of. its entrance, into a drainpipe, through which he was just able to squeeze. After a struggle he managed to get into the sloping, dark drain, leading to the, shaft, twentyseven yards away, at the bottom of which the kitten was imprisoned. The drain enters tbo shaft* about five feet above where the kitten was mewing plaintively, and after much., wriggling in the,dark he reached the opening to lue shaft and. dropped to the bottom. He secured the kitten, and taking it in his arms, clambered np the slippery side of the shaft, and again entered the_ drain. Then he climbed up the drain, until be readied the surface, and handed, the kitten over to its owner.

The lad has been greatly praised for his action, and it is intended to recognise his courage and kindness to animals. Tlie head teacher of the North Alelbonrne State school, En'ol Street, Mr D’Arcy Lear, is interesting himself m arranging for a presentation to the boy, who is- one of his pupils