FALL OVER A CUFF.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1915, Page 3

FALL OVER A CUFF.

A LABORER'S DISAPPEARANCE. FOUND AND DOST AGAIN. MAN BELIEVED TO BE DROWNED. There are some unusual features about the disappearance of William Monaghan, who is believed to have been drowned in the Awakino river. All the circumstances point to the man having been drowned, but searches in the river have failed to produce any trace of him. On Saturday morning the New iPlymouth police received a report from Constable McGregor, of Mokau, who states that last Thursday he received word from the postmaster at Awakino that Monaghan was reported to be drowned in the Awakino river about nine miles from Awakino. Constable - ' McGregor proceeded to the scene of the accident and there saw Mat Walton, Wesley Hackett and Harry Pearce, all laborers in the district, who stated that on Wednesday afternoon they left Awakino to return to work. They stopped at R. McKenzie's camp to have tea, and in the evening they left for their own camp, which was further along the road. When they got about a mile along the road they sat down for a rest for a few minutes above a high cliff, which goes down to the edge of the Awakino river. When they started on their journey again and had gone about a cnain they missed Monaghan. They turned back to look for him, and while doing so heard a bump at the foot of the cliff, and concluded that Monaghan had fallen down. Walton climbed down the cliff to search and found Monaghan lying with his head downhill towards the river. He picked Monaghan up and laid him alongside a log. Monaghan said he was not hurt, although he had fallen about 30 feet. Walton left him lying there and climbed up the cliff to the road again. Pearce went to Mr. Calvert's station about two miles away to get a rope to pull Monaghan up with, while Walton and Hackett sat at the edge of the road and kept calling down to Monaghan to see if he was all right. Monaghan kept answering them until about ten minutes before Pearce arrived with a rope. It was now about one o'clock on Thursday morning. Walton then went down again, but could find no trace of Monaghan. They found one of his boots at the top of the cliff where he went over, and at daybreak they found the other boot at the spot where Walton left Monaghan lying at the bottom of the cliff. Constable McGregor adds that he examined the cliff, which is very dangerous, it being at the edge of the road. He saw marks where Monaghan had fallen over and he dragged the river in the vicinity without result. It is believed that although the missing man had been known as Monaghan, iiis correct name is Moynihan.