THE WINTON COACH ACCIDENT.

Evening Star, Issue 3711, 14 January 1875, Page 3

THE WINTON COACH ACCIDENT.

To the Editor.

Si*. —An account of an accident in the Mataura river to the Kingston Invercargill coach appears in your last evening's paper, and to most of your readers it appear simply a joke As such it would not be worth taking notice of, the astounding narrative of hairbreadth-escapes and daring feats performed on the occasion being a m >st pretty piece of sensational writing, but unfortunately the conduct of the driver is called in question most unjustly; and it appears to us that, as eyewitnesses of the whole scene, it is simply a matter of duty for ua fo vindicate his character— seeing that if such aspersions are left uncontradicted they may seriously injure his means of living as a coach proprietor and driver.

Shortly, then, we may state that, far from losing his head in the river, Mr Flint displayed the greatest cooln ss and judgment and had he not turned the hoises down stream the moment he did we fear that one or more of the passengers would have loot their lives That from the moment be wen' into the river till be brought the coach back to the bank he never left hold of the reins we are certain, standing close by as we were and watching with a painful interest the course of the coaeh ; and we were much struck with the skilful manner in which he handled bis horses. When the coach reached the shore there were many willing bands to render assistance ; hut we fear that your informant was concocting his pretty romance at the time, instead of aiding in saving the property of the unfortunate driver. We need say no more, except that, in our opinion, the heroes of the hour were the American photographers, who were as cool as possible, wore the last to leave the coach, and saved, at considerable risk to themselves, not only their own instruments, but the baggage of the other passengers, which otherwise would have stood a good chance of being lost. We will leave uncontradicted the story of the many-banded gentleman of herculean strength who pulled one horse ashore with one band, li f ted the pole of the coach with another, saved a drowning horse with a third, rescued the passengers with a fourth, and to whose daring efforts the passengers owe their lives, and trust that you will excuse our thus intruding on your space in the interests of a poor man, unjustly accused behind his back, and who has no opportunity of defending himself.—We are &c , ■Wm, CrNKINGHAME SMITH, Thos. Brydone. Dunedin, January 14.