FIVE PEOPLE DROWNED

Chronicle (Levin), 11 May 1949, Page 5

FIVE PEOPLE DROWNED

Press Assdtiiatioft)

Car Overturns In Flooded Stream Near Hawera

(Per

HAWERA, May 11. Five persons, a young fmarded couple and three Indian sbr'ub cuttel-s, were drowned in the Makino Stream when their car went off the Morea Valley road beyond Ararata, near Hawera, last night. The car waS submerged upside down in the ftood waters and rescuers, working throughout the wild and stormy night> brought oiit the bodies just after 5 o'elock this morning. The victims were: — Archie Tarrant) third son of Mr. and Mrs. T.-Tarrant, Ngawini Road, Ararata, manager of the D. J. Berd property at the end of Mqrea Road, 15 miles frofii Hawera. Mrs. Ivy Tarrant, wife of Mr. A. Tarrant. Reseham Singh. Sicha Singh. Milkhi Ram.

The three Indians, who had been employed on scrub cuttiiig at Morea Valley for Mr. Tarrant over' the past. three months had aeeompanied the Tarrants to Hawera to draw their cheques, with the intention of going to Taumarunui for a holiday with fellow countrymen. . . When they found that they eould not take a train out of Hawera until today, they sought accommodation for the. night. For sotfie reason this was not available and they elected to return to Morea Valley, with the Tarrants. As the evening advanced and the party had not reached the homestead, Mrs. Tarrant's mother, Mrs. Rouse, who resided with the couple, became

eoncernea. Two employees on the estate saw the reflection of lights in the waters of the flooded Makino Stream. . Marks on the road and at the side showed Where the ear had gone off the erown of the "road and over--turned into the stream, a distance of -approximately 25 feet, coming to rest on its top with the wheels just showing through the water. The headlights remained switched on. Normally the stream can be waded, but following two days of heavy rain it was then running some six feet deep. All five oceupafits were apparentiy trapped in their seats and unable to open the doors.