YOUTH DROWNED

Hokitika Guardian, 29 August 1932, Page 4

YOUTH DROWNED

FATALITY AT WELLINGTONBROTHER’S EFFORT TO RESCUE. (Per Press Association — Copyright.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 28. When a canoe was overwhelmed in Evans Bay f.y a- high wind late on Saturday, William Joseph Blacklidge, aged 21, a hawker, was thrown into me water and drowned.. Tb° canoe and paddles were found late at night, but the 'body has not yet been recovered; Blacklidge bought the canoe, a 16 foot canvas one, two days earlier. • His brothers, Stanley Blacklidge, aged; 13, and Maurice Bennett Blacklidge, aged 17, had been with, him during the afternoon, but they remained on shore when the eldest boy went out. A strong wind was blowing. Althouth it was comparatively safe near the Patent Slip, it was dangerous further out. BTacklidge ventured about 200 yards from the shore. A strong gust caught the canoe, and overturned it. His brother, Maurice, stripped and dived to the rescue, making a gallant at-; tempt, but he was. unable to last* out, He was’-himself rescued just in time by a rope thrown from a jetty. Two men also went to the rescue, and swam over the spot where the canoe overturned. They saw "no sign of Blacklidge. A police,patrol at 10.30 p.m. discovered the canoe and the peddles washed up at the south end of Evans Bay. The partrol continued all night; though the search was unavailing,