ACCIDENT.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 318, 16 January 1871, Page 2

ACCIDENT.

NARROW ESCAPE FROM DROWNING

A. siNorrr,Aßi,Y narrow escape from drowning, occurred on Saturday afternoon in Wellington si.re-t. A child of four years old. named Murdoch McLeod was playing with his little sister near a well, about forty feet deep, when he tumbled in. Fortunately there was about thirty feet deep of water in the weil The little sister screamed, and Mr. John McLeod, no relative, a miner at tho Kuranui claim rushed to the spot, and at on.c laying hold of the rope, another man holding it above, descended into the well. The child must, have floated for an instant for ho had only sunk a foot or two below the the surface when he was seized by McLeod and rescued. The child very rapidly revived, in fact the suddenness of the accident and rescue was very unusual. It was a most fortunate circumstance that brought Mr. McLeod to the spot, as. he had just arrived afier having missed his passage on the steamer to the Thames Had it not been for this providential circumstance, the child would, in all probability have been lost, as there was no other man in the immediate neighbourhood at the time of the occurrence. The pluck and promptitude of Mr. McLeod are deserving of all praise. The rope had a most frail appearance, and there cannot be a doubt that in dashing into a well of unknown «ieptli, and depending on such a rope, and with no help, he was taking his life in his hand.