DROWNED IN LAKE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 874, 18 January 1930, Page 10

DROWNED IN LAKE

FATALITY AT HAMILTON ATTEMPT TO RESCUE From Our Own Correspondent HAMILTON, Today. While trying to swim in the lake at Hamilton yesterday afternoon, a schoolboy, Arthur Rangi Carey Gannon, 14, who lived with his grandmother, Mrs. Kelly, Clarence Street, Hamilton, was drowned. The boy was paddling near the diving-platform, when other children who did not know him saw him wave his hands and disappear. The body was found in eight feet of water by Mr. W. Lane, of Fencourt. Dr. A. G. Waddell and Constable Rice attempted to restore animation for over an hour, but without success. The boy was an orphan and was a nephew of Mr. Lockie Gannon, civil engineer, of Auckland. An inquest was conducted by the district coroner,' Mr. Wyvern Wilson, today. The evidence showed that the boy, who only learned to swim this week, dog-paddled out of his depth and in struggling to get hack went under. Another boy, Arthur Griffiths, swam out and managed to get hold of the drowning boy, whose head was then just under the surface, but he was unable to get him out. William George Lane, farmer, of Fencourt, who was sitting in a car some distance away, said he heard a commotion and donning his bathing costume, dived and recovered the body which was lying in about eight feet of water. Artificial respiration was tried for two hours, without response. The coroner commented on the lack of life-saving apparatus at the lake, where so many people bathed. The fatality was one of those not unusual happenings in summer time. when lakes and rives took their toll of persons who could not swim. A verdict of death by misadventure was returned.