DROWNING ACCIDENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1921, Page 5

DROWNING ACCIDENT.

ON MOKAU RIVER. YOUNG MAN LOSES HIS LIFE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) A sad tragedy occurred at Mokau ferry •on Thursday, when a young man named Reuben Williscroft was drowned. His father and brother were getting firewood on the other side of the river, and called to deceased to bring the punt over. They went back to get another load, and on coming back to the riverside they noticed the punt in mid-stream, but no one on it. They at once feared an accident had happened, and the police were communicated with. They found deceased’s cap on the punt, and the ferry-boat tied alongside. Constable Blaikie and Mr. Norman Clifton at once proceeded to drag the river, and in a very short while the body of the hapless young man was recovered, close to the punt. Restorative measures were used, but life was extinct, and the 1 body was removed to his brother’s house, where an inquest will be held. No one being with deceased at the time, nothing is really known of how the accident happened, but it is conjectured that he probably had gone to the edge of one of the doors of the punt to push it down, and his foot slipped and he fell over. Being unable to swim, he had no chance of saving himself. Much sympathy is felt with Mr. and Mrs. Williscroft in their sad and sudden bereavement. The deceased was a quiet; unassuming young man, and popular with all who knew him.