BATHER DROWNED

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19758, 13 December 1935, Page 8

BATHER DROWNED

SUMNER SURF TRAGEDY. BOYS ATTEMPT RESCUE. OFFER OF HELP REFUSED. (v Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday. A man was drowned while bathing at Sumner this afternoon. The body has not been recovered.. Nothing was found in his clothing by which lie could be identified. Owing to the state of the tide, a current was running along the beach making bathing dangerous except for expert swimmers. The man was seen to be in difficulties by three boys, Douglas Wethey, Tony Cook, and Gordon Dalzeil, all junior members of the Sumner Life-saving Club. They immediately went to his assistance, hut liic man refused tiic boys’ aid, saying lie could swim.

The boys were not easy in their minds and were not surprised when a few minutes later the man was seen to be obviously in dilTleultics. Again the boys went (o help him, and while Wethey and Dalzeil supported him Cook went ashore for Ihc life line. Welhcy and Dalzeil found the man’s weight too milch for (hem and they were relieved by another boy, Herbert Stevens, who kept the man afloat for a lime. The man struggled, however, and Stevens was forced lo lei him go. In the meantime, Wcthcy, Cook, Dalzeil, and C. Mortimer had run out I lie life line, bill the man had disappeared. A search for the body continued all Ihe afternoon without success.