A HOY’S MISADVENTURE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3788, 13 February 1908, Page 4

A HOY’S MISADVENTURE.

Further Details. The Woodville Examiner publishes the following lurther details of the lad Walter Greaves, who was burned to death at Mangatainoka last Saturday. During the afternoon the boy had been sent a message on horseback to Pahiatua, and when returning took the horse to the river for a drink. The lad noticed a strange white object in the water. He jumped off the horse, picked it up, broke it in two, and placed one portion in his trousers pocket and the other in his jumper. A companion told him to throw the stuff back intothe water, but the boy said he would take it home and show it to his mother. The poor little fellow had only gone a few yards from the river when the stuff burst out into flames. The boy’s .cries for help attracted the attention ’ of Constable May and Messrs Rom-, bach and Dalziel, and a Pahiatua man. The boy was fairly ablaze when these men reached him, and one man put his coat around the boy in an effort to stifle the flames. In an instant or two the coat was burnt to a cinder, and also some important papers which were in one of the pockets. The men were greatly puzzled, and did not know what was causing the Are. By this time the boy was most frightfully burned, and his shrieks were heartrending. Some of the clothes were stripped off him, and a blanket being secured from Mrs Cowan, the boy was rolled in it and taken into Mrs Cowan’s house and laid on a bed. In a few seconds the bed was on fire. Then it was discovered that the cause of the trouble was a stick of phosphorous. Dr Dawson, of Pahiatua, arrived in about half-an-hour. Although the doctor did all that he,possibly could to relieve the sufferer, he saw that case was hopeless, and the child lingered on until two o’clock on Saturday morning, when the frightful agony the little chap was in was at an end, much to the relief of those who witnessed his dying moments.

The boy was frightfully burned down one side and all over his back, but the worst place was between his legs, where the liquid phosphorus had run. Had the constable or any of the men who were first on the scene any idea of what was causing the fire, and plunged the boy into the river. (although it was 60 or 70 j'ards away) his life might have been saved. A bystander told our reporter that almost everybody was frantic, not knowing what to do or even the cause of the fire.' The constable and the men who assisted had their hands badly burned.

And how did the phosphorus come to be in the river?. That was the question asked by everybody. It is surmised that some farmer up the river was about to poison some grain for the destruction of rabbits, and had placed the phosphorus in the river for safety, and it had been washed down by a flood. The coroner did not think it necessary to hold-an inquest.