DROWNING ACCIDENT AT WAITOMO.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 51, 11 October 1907, Page 3

DROWNING ACCIDENT AT WAITOMO.

A deplorable occurrence, due to the recent flood, is reported from the Waitomo district, the circumstances surrounding the case pointing to the accidental drowning of a man named . Exley Roberts. Mr A. Wilson, surveyor, was working on the Waitomo Valley road on Tuesday .When he discovered the body of a man in a hole beside a culvert. The unfortunate man had evidently met his death by drowning, and the body had apparently been in the hole 'for some days. Mr Wilson immediately sent his assistant to communicate the intelligence to Constable Fraser, of Otorohanga, and himself sought the assistance of Mr Cutcliff, a neighbouring settler. Mr Cutcliff indentified the body as that of a settler, named Exley Roberts, who had been missing fjr some days. The scene of the occurrence was only about six chains from the deceased's house, and Roberts had evidently been attempting to cross the culvert during the height of the flood. At that time there would be about three feet of water on the road, and difficulty would .be experienced in keeping to the centre of the I culvert. :,f This surmise is borne out by the fact ■ - that the deceased had his oilskin and coat gathered up under his arms, as he naturaliy would have in the act of wading. It is; understood that Roberts was a married man with a wife and child in England, and that he came to New Zealand to make a home for his young family.