RESCUED FROM SEA.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20477, 1 December 1934, Page 27 (Supplement)

RESCUED FROM SEA.

Tragedies Averted at Sumner. CHILDREN IN DANGER A party of children from the School for the Deaf at Sumner were enjoying the pleasant surf and summer conditions of yesterday afternoon when four of them were unexpectedly trapped by the current of a hidden channel just behind the first line of breakers. Two struggled to safety, one was rescued by a strong swimmer, and the fourth was hauled in by means of the Surf Club’s life-saving reel and line, prompt action being taken by the representatives of the teaching staff then on the beach. The lad brought ashore by the line was Billie Williams. He was in a bad way, and had to be resuscitated on the sand. This was done by Messrs R. Glackin and Fred England, both of whom had been well trained in the methods of the Royal Life Saving Society. When the lad had recovered sufficiently he was assisted up to the, life-saving pavilion, but he suffered a severe collapse and was finally taken to the house of Mr and Mrs Staples, of the Pavilion Tea Rooms, where restorative measures were again successful. In the course of an hour the boy was moved by motor to the school, where he made a good recovery. The beach at the spot, at low tide, is particularly deceptive. It shelves gently into shallow broken water and then unexpectedly deepens into a channel which develops towards Cave Rock and carries a current right past the bathing pavilion. Whilst some bathers were swimming in the waters of the shallow channel near Cave Rock on the estuary side of the beach, about 3.45 p.m. yesterday, a little girl, Netta Clark, of Sumner, was noticed to be drifting out towards the bar. lan Ward and Miss Dora Plominski went to her assistance. Although she could not swim very well, the girl obeyed the instructions given her and she -was brought to the Beacon Rock just before the strong rip of the main current caught her. Later she was assisted to the beach and was able to make her way home unattended.