DOUBLE DROWNING SENSATION

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3016, 27 March 1926, Page 2

DOUBLE DROWNING SENSATION

AT WiANGANUI

BRAVE YOUTH’S FATAL ATTEMPT TO RESCUE.

Wanganui, Last Night

A double drowning sensation in the Wangaui river to-day was marked by extraordinary features. As yet the identity of the man who had made a tragic leap from the town bridge is not definitely established, but is believed by the police to he Alexander Mitchell, a horse trainer, who is missing and whose sons are assisting in the search for the body.

Mitchell was recently concerned in Demure’s case in which he claimed over £2OOO damages for alleged breach of contract in connection with the lease of the racing filly Demure and his case failed. Before noon to-day Mitchell approached a man named Young at the city end of the bridge, asking for a piece of lead and a rope. Young asked what for, and Mitchell said to patch a -colt. Young complied, and Mitchell saying: “I’ll fix it,” departed across the bridge.

Shortly afterwards a man, assumed to be Mitchell, climbed the parapet of the footbridge which runs beside the traffic bridge and jumped 25 feet into the river.

The only ones who saw this were some distance away, though the bridge is near the centre of the city, few being about at the time. However, the man’s pfight in the water was soon seen and three men — William Hamilton, N. Rowe, and A. Noyer—plunged in to assist. They were on the town wharf side and the drowning man was on the far side of the river, so the rescuers had some distance to swim.

A strong ebb tide was running and the water was very cold owing to the recent Hood. Hamilton and Noyer were both seamen on the s.s. Invercargill, and Rowe is a watersider. Hamilton, a strong swimmer, got well out .in the current. Then he appealed fur help and suddenly sank, presumably having been attacked by cramp. A boat launched from the steamer Ngatiuwa almost reached him.before lie sank. Meanwhile Noyer returned to shore but Rowe reached the body of the drowned man. Unfortunately, he was too exhausted to hold the body up ami himself was in a bad way when rescued by a boat from the Invercargill. Subsequently Rowe was taken to the hospital, but is now progressing well.

Neither the body of the man who suicided nor that of Hamilton was recovered. Hamilton was a popular lad of 19 and his parents reside in Newtown, Wellington.

Singular features of the tragedy are that it was enacted within a stone’s throw of the busiest part of the city and over a hundred people who quickly collected on the bridge and wharf watched Hamilton go to his death in his effort to save the man who leaped from the bridge. (