BOY DROWNED IN RIVER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 625, 30 March 1929, Page 7

BOY DROWNED IN RIVER

CRADLE ROPE BREAKS ATTEMPT TO CROSS STREAM Press Association INVERCARGILL, Friday. A verdict of drowning by accidentally falling into the Makarewa River was returned by the coroner at the inquest yesterday concerning the death of Robert Duff, aged 11. who was missed from his home on Thursday, March 21, and whose body was found in the Makarewa River last Tuesday. David Issett Duff, father of the boy. said his son usually crossed the river in the cradle swung on the wire cablo between two pulleys. Three other children had crossed over before and his son had to pull the cradle back to his side. A break in the cradle was reported by another boy, and when witness went down to the bank he saw the boy’s bag there and the cradle half-way across the stream with the hand rope swinging in the water. The cable ar.|l cradle had been in use for about six years and although a foot bridge had since been erected a mile further away his children preferred using the cradle. Witness thought that the boy was pulling the tladle back from the other side when the rope broke and he slipped into the river which was in flood.