FATALITY AT WAITOA.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5173, 2 September 1927, Page 2

FATALITY AT WAITOA.

PROMINENT FARMER KILLED.

CAR CAPSIZES INTO DRAIN,

Arthur Albert Wagstaff was motoring with his daughter towards Waitoa about 8.30 yesterday morning when the car skidded and capsized into a big drain alongside No. 1 Road, near the N.Z. Co-operative Dairy Company’s factory.

Mr Wagstaff was thrown into the drain and drowned. His body was found half an hour later some distance from where the accident occurred.

Mr Wagstaff was motoring to Waitoa to catch the- early morning train to Hamilton, where he was to attend a meeting of the Waikato- Hospital Board. Without warning the steering gear collapsed, with the result that the car skidded and f®ll into the drain, which is about eight feet deep. Miss Wagstaff managed to reach safety, but her father did not rise from the water. He was 60 ye-ars of age, and is survived by his widow, one daughter, and three sons, all of whom live in the district.

Mr Wagstaff was one of the most prominent and influential men in the district. He owned a considerable area of dairying land, and was a breeder of pedigree Jersey cattle. He was chairman of the Waitoa Drainage Board, president of the Thames Valley A. and P. Association, a niember of the Waikato Hospital Board, and a member of the Thames Harbour Board. He was also for some years a member of the directorate o>f the Thames Valley Co-operative Dairying Co., Ltd., and was well known at Paeroa.