FATAL ACCIDENT OFF THE WHARF.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume IV, Issue 370, 29 March 1876, Page 2

FATAL ACCIDENT OFF THE WHARF.

About eight o'clock yesterday evening, some man' (name unknown) fell overboard "when either going on or coming off* 'the- s.s..l£owena as she - i was moored" alongside the wharf. - The, firsj thMiKa^-knpjs!JLpi-43ie^aoai — . dent was from the man being heard to sing out" in the water "come on;" 'his actual fall into the water not being witnessed by any one. The - pilot boat and a boat from the Rowena went at once to* the rescue (Mr McKeHar, Collector- of ' Customs, also promptly put off in a small dingy, accompanied" by Mr J. W. Gray), but unfortunately they could see nothing of the drowning man, whose cries had ceased almost before the boats got off. The night' was pitch dark, and the wind' blowing from the Northeast at the time, accompanied with rain, and a strong flood tide running, there was little chance of the boats finding any traces of the unfortunate ■ man, who must have been carried down- in- the direction of Maungatapit, and being encumbered with all" his ciothes, had but a poor chance of' keeping afloat for long.. It is supposed that 1 the drowned man was a stranger in Tauranga, and probably one of the arrivals by the coach from the Lake district yesterday. The police boat will go out at daylight this morning in search of the body. TEe >,T was lumbered up last night with coils of"' fencing wire, empty butterkegs, &c; a- fact to which we shall^ refer in-:our next issue.-