ESCAPE FROM DROWNING

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5306, 30 July 1928, Page 2

ESCAPE FROM DROWNING

BOY. IN NGATEA DRAIN’. LACK OF STREET LIGHTS. Such an accident as should stir the people qf Ngatea into making an. effort to restore the' township street lights, Involving as it did -a narrow escape from loss of life, occurred last Friday evening. While going to the pictures with his father, Leslie, soil, qf Mr. H. Hayward, of Ngatea, walked! into the readside drain through mistaking for the hall bridge, the gap between the handrail of the. bridge and the rail which marks the edge of the filling in front of Mr J. E. Reid’s garage. There' was a strlong current in-the drain, anil had not Mr Hayward jumped into the water and rescued Ms son the latter may have been carried into the culvert under Mr Reid’s filling. While the mishap may be directly attributed to the lack of adequate lighting, the Ngatea Hall Society cannot be absolved from some blame for not having had a rail erected to protect, this space, .which several people have mistaken for a small footbridge? The mishap has also drawn public attention to the procrastination of the hall committee in, filling the drain on its ftonjage as diriected by this annual meeting of members in •May.