PLUCKY LITTLE BOY.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16811, 1 June 1926, Page 5

PLUCKY LITTLE BOY.

EFFORT TO SAVE HIS COMRADE. (Times Correspondent.) • WELLINGTON, Monday. During Hic inquest on the deatli of a boy named Kevin Noel Carr, aged 10, who was drowned in Evans Lay on Friday afternoon through a canoe capsizing, the bravery by his companion was revealed. Henry Compton, the boy who was saved, in evidence, said that he and Carr went to the Evans Bay power station to get some coke for ins mother, it being her birthday. They loaded a small cart and a sack, and then decided to go for a row' in a small ilat-bottomed canoe which was offered to them by another boy. Fearing that their coke might be taken should they leave it on the beach, they put the sack in the bow and the cart in the stern of the boat. The canoe had no oars, being guided by a couple of sticks. It was their intention to go only a little way, but once in the bay they found they could not return to llie shore on account of the wind, and they slowly drifted out towards the Miramar wharf. The canoe began to leak, and they baled till the tins they w'crc using drifted away. The canoe gradually filled up, and foundered about 1 o'clock. “ I jumped out, and pulled Kevin out," said Compton, “ and helped him as well as 1 could to get him away from the boat, but he did not want to leave the cart, which was floating nearby.” Compton said he tried to make for the shore, but in a few 7 minutes lost sight of Carr and the cart, lie remembered very little after that, and could not say how he was taken out of the water. After evidence had been given bywitnesses of the occurrence, the Coroner remarked that it was quite evident that death had occurred from misadventure. Compton was a plucky little boy, and did all lie could to help his friend, but was not much of a swimmer, and could not assist him.