SMALL BOY DROWNED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2091, 17 February 1920, Page 3

SMALL BOY DROWNED.

SEARCH REVEALS ANOTHER VICTIM. A drowning fatality occurred in the Manawatu River, near the Palmerston Esplanade, on Saturday afternoon. Several small children were playing on a log on the edge of the river, when one of the children —a boy named Allen Kelly, aged 8 1/2 years, a son of Mr W. Kelly, railway signalman—fell into the water and was quickly carried away and drowned before help could be procured. Dragging operations were immediately commenced by the police. These were continued on Sunday, when the boy’s body was discovered about 200 yards below the place where he had fallen in. A singular coincidence marked the searching operations. About the same time as the body of the lad Kelly was found, Constables Ferguson and Grant, who were searching for the deceased, were looking under the log from which he had fallen. The water at this place is about 9 feet deep. They noticed what appeared to be a body with the arms pointing upwards. Constable Ferguson dived in and caught hold of one of the hands, and the flesh came away. The body was eventually hauled up, and it was found to be that of a man between 40 and 50 years' of age, strongly built, and about 5ft. 6in. in height. The body was in a very decomposed condition, and had probably been in the water for three months on more. The features were quite unrecognisable. At the present time it is not known who the deceased is. There was nothing found which would serve to establish his identity beyond several tatoo marks, one of these being intended to represent “Brittania” and another that of a full rigged ship. The deceased was attired in dark tweed trousers, singlet and underpants, and also wore socks and tan boots. No one has been reported missing from this district, and it is surmised that the body was washed down from the upper reaches of the river by floods. The police are making extensive enquiries in order to establish the man’s identity.