TWO KILLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 226, 23 September 1940, Page 3

TWO KILLED.

YOUNG TERRITORIALS. CYCLE JUMPS STREAM. TUAKAU, this day. When the motor cycle they were riding left the road near the bridge in front of Centennial Park, Tuakau, and jumped 25 yards across a stream, on Saturday evening, two territorials were killed. They were:— Lance-Corporal John William Rivers, aged 18, elder eon of Mr: and Mrs. W. Rivers, of Russell; and Private Patrick Henry Tilt, aged 22, only eon of Mr. H. W. Tilt, of Glenbrook, Waiuku. Both men were undergoing training at the Ngaruawahia camp.

Apparently no one saw the accident, but yesterday morning a boy playing near by saw the. machine and the bodies of the two men lying at the edge of the stream about 18 feet below the bridge and largely screened by willows. A mark on the roadside indicated that the machine had left the tar-sealing on the bend and hit a rise on the bank of the stream just outside the bridge railings. This threw it right across the stream, which is about 25 fee.t wide at this point. They had obviously struck a willow on the far side, a small branch having been torn off. This wae lying by the. motor cycle, which came to rest in about eight inches of water at the edge of the stream on the. far side from Tuakau. Both received injuries indicating that death must have been instantaneous. Lance-Corporal Rivers was well known in the district as a footballer, playing for Te Kohunga seniors last year. Private Tilt worked on his father's farm until he went into camp a month ago. Both men belonged to a mounted unit.

An inquest was opened by the district coroner, Mr. C. K. Lawrie, and adjourned after identification had been taken.