SWIMMER’S DEATH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 41, 17 January 1938, Page 6

SWIMMER’S DEATH.

PROBABLY DUE TO CRAMP. Per Press Association. IVAIROA, Jan. 17. Another drowning fatality—the fifth in the Wairaa County this summer — occurred on Saturday afternoon, when Roderick Frank Barrett, aged about 30, whose parents it is believed reside at Blenheim, lost his life in the Mangaruhe Stream. . Mr Barrett, together with Mr L. R. Parkinson and Mr H. L. Sykes, was engaged on a timber cutting contract at the mill owned by Mr W. Bedley, a builder, of Wairoa. On Saturday afternoon after lunch they went for a swim. After swimming about for some time the men climbed on to the bank, where an apple tree is growing, and ate a. quantity of apples which were not ripe. The men then continued their swim, but 60011 after entering the water Mr Barrett disappeared without warning, the body being recovered about three hours later. At the inquest the Coroner (Mr V. E. Winter) returned a finding of accidental drowning probably caused by cramp, and issued a warning to the public against swimming immediately after meals. This is the second case of the kind to come under his notice this summer. DOUBLE DROWNING FEARED. CANTERBURY TRAGEDY. Per Press Association. = ASHBURTON, Jan. 17. Lewin Merrin, aged 12, the son of Mr J. Merrin, of Longbeach, was drowned while swimming in the Ashburton River yesterday. A cousin, Harold William Soal, aged 17, is musing and is believed to have been drowned. A neighbour walking along the riverbank last evening found Merrin’s body ill a bathing costume in the river about a mile below where the two boys’ clothes were left on the bank.