A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4646, 9 January 1924, Page 4

A MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.

A SWIMMER IN TROUBLE. A miraculous escape from drowning, w.iich might have been thought to be far-fetched if it were seen in a movie serial, took place on the Waiinakariri River last week (says the Christchurch Sun). None of these who took part in the adventure was any the worse for it. A treacherous stream is the Waimakariri in flood time. On Wednesday there was an exceptionally strong current and the water was ley cold. These facts did not deter a party camping on the southern bank of the river two or three miles west of Belfast from having a plunge. There was one youngster in the party who was a good swimmer. He got out into the current and in a second he was swept down at a rapid rate. The boy was only 15.

On the bank was a party of picnickers from a Christchurch Presbyterian Church. Immediately every man in the party threw his coat off. Half-a-dozen young men dived into the water simultaneously a little lover down the river. But the current was too strong for most of them. They had to struggle out as betet they could. Meanwhile the boy had sunk twice without anyone being able ;o reach him.

All this time the female members of the party on the bank were watching the incident with horrified eyes. Suddenly a cry went up : “He’s gone 1 Oh I Oh ! He’s gone !”

And, indeed, he had gone. With twenty human beings looking on unable to help, he had gone down for the last time. The young men continued to watch for the body. One was standing in the middle of the stream, where the current had lost just sufficient force to enable him to keep his feet. Suddenly he bent down with a yell. The body had floated down and passed within a few inches of him. The boy was hauled ashore and artificial respiration applied. He had been under the water probably for two or tlwec minutes. The girls in the party said it was five, but The rescuers had great difficulty in getting the boy back to the other bank again, for he had been landed on the far bank. It took more than throe hours to rig up a contraption by which he was hauled across. E'ven then the rope broke when he was nearly ashore, and there were some marc exciting moments before he was re-rescued and finally brought ashore.