LAKE TE ANAU TRAGEDY

Evening Star, Issue 20139, 2 April 1929, Page 14

LAKE TE ANAU TRAGEDY

BOAT OVERTURNS TWO MEN DROWNED [Per United Press Association.] INVERCATiGILL, April 1. Further particulars of tlio Te Auaii tragedy have been received. A party of f.nr Invercargill men—William Horace Thomas, James Kirkland, William Mapletoft, and William Mayhew—left tor Te Anau on Thursday last. On Saturday the party took a boat and went out on the lake to fish. Mayhew was left in charge of the camp. The site of the camp was about halfway between Te Anau Hotel and the mouth of the Upukerora River, which enters the lake some three miles from the hotel. At this point, and extending for some distance, there is a natural terrace forming a sudden drop of some Sft from the surrounding country to ihe lake shore. The fishermen had made their camp under the shelter of this lank, and so-when-the boat was ialien out of the lake it was obscured from the view of the man in eamp by Ihe higher tussocks and scrub-covered land. Thomas Kirkland and Mapletoft rowed in a flat-bottomed boat to a spot about a mile from the camp site and were fishing not more than 300 yards from the shore. The conditions appeared fair when they set out, but when they had got their rods out and had-settled down to fish, the wind grew stronger. The surface of the lake quickly lecanie rough, and the boat v. a; considerably tossed about. Suddenly a fiercer squall sprang up, and the boat was caught broadside on by the waves and swamped, and overturned. The three men were thrown into the water, Mapletoft, with a struggle, got hold of the upturned boat, and clung to it, but could do nothing to help the others, who, after a. struggle, sank without rising again. All three men were clad in fishing clothes, and were wearing heavy gum hoots. '.I lie weight of these when filled with water would make it jiractically impossible to keep afloat, and the drowning men would be unable to discard them because they were attached to their waists by straps. 'When Mapletoft finally reached shore he was still wearing his hoots, and even with the aid of (he boat had found the greatest difficulty in keeping his head above the surface.

A peculiar feature of tlm fatality is that Thomas was a particularly powerful swimmer, and Kirkland was a very fair swimmer. i!oi,h these men acre drowned, and yet Maple toft, who could scarcely swim at all, survived. It was not until some considerable lime after the others had gone down that Mapletoft. exhausted with his struggles, reached the shore, and Maybe w did not know what had happened until the. survivor readied eamp. Anglers who know the lake intimately have oftentimes expressed wonder that even greater loss of life has not, been recorded, as at times eight or more visitors have been seen to crowd into a boat capable of seating five, and row out on to the mirror-like surface of the lake for half a mile or more, and (lie only reason that they have been able to return .safely lias been because no wind has sprung up. From the narrow gorges throughout the west side of the lake gusty winds spring up at a. moment's notice, and within a few minutes the lake becomes very choppy, wave after wave tossing a stationary boat tumultously and causing a lot of water to be shipped.