WHANQAPE LAUNCH ACCIDENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 28, 28 October 1907, Page 9

WHANQAPE LAUNCH ACCIDENT.

-~ , [BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.], . ■ v : , Auckland, October 26. Captain J. Harrison, master of tlio steamor Ohineniuri, who was in Whangape when the' launch fatality occurred there on Sunday last, -has supplemented the account of the sad occurrence. Ho says that the wholo settlement was 'thrown into a state : of: grief: over the pathetic end of so many'young fellows, and it was rendered tho more poignant because of the touch of foolliardiness in their venturing over tho treacherous bar-in a small boat. ' ; '■'I do not exaggerate," he said, "when I refer to tho Whangapo bariis being treacherous, because' it is regarded as the most dangerous channel, in New Zealand. Tho suddenness with which heavy seas gather is its worst feature. Familiarity, they'say, breeds contempt, and this may ho applied to some of the.people, for it'is not uncommon when the weather is fine to see fishing parties in. open boats outside the bar. Only last Saturday I came unon five parties in open boats, and towed them over tho bar, reminding them of the danger they ran. How far that warning was held is shown in tho fact that several of tho launch party were in one or other of those boats. No one on shore appears to have witnessed the accident, the settlement being about a mile distant from tho bar."