SAD DROWNING FATALITY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2145, 3 January 1891, Page 3

SAD DROWNING FATALITY.

On New Year’s Night Mr Timothy Geaney, a well-known resident of Pleasant Point, and for many years the proprietor of the Railway Hotel there, met with his death by drowning. The circumstance*, is revealed by the.Coronei’a inquest which was held yesterday, and other evidence, are to the following effect:—“On the afternoon of Jan. Ist, at about four o’clock, two young men named Tozar wem looking for a stray horse on the Opihi riverbed. They saw some person, whom they believed to be Mr Geaney, in a buggy attempting to cross the river, which was considerably swollen by the recent rains. Mr Geaney cooyed to them to fetch assistance, and they «etit with all haste to the township, first calling a neighboring settler. Everyborty at liberty immediately went to assist. On reaching the riverbed the horse and buggy were found out of the river, on a saoJspit some distance from where they were first seen. A saddle which had been in the buggy was, curiously enough, fouod entangled on the axle of the buggy.-- The inference is that the buggy tamed ovor twice. Mr Geaney was nowhere to he found. A search sns instituted, and his body was seen on a shingle spit some distance below where the buggy was seen. Mr D. McLeod and Mr Lewis Grant, junr., assisted by Mr Alfred Tozer, succeeded iu effecting a crossing at a ford higher up, and brought the body across on a horse, after much difficulty. Mr D. McLeod notably erlieted the sympathy of the onlooksrs by his gallant endeavors to cross the river. For close upon an hour he was in the water, and upon one occasion was washed down about 200 hundred yards, and on y ; reached the bank in a fearfully exhausted condition. The body was taken to Mr Geaney’s late residence. The constable, being absent in Timaru cn duty, was telegraphed to, as were also Mr Geaney’s two brothers. At the inquest, at which Captain Wray presided, a verdict of “Accidentally drowned” was returned. It is needless to say that the affair has oast quite a gloom over the township of Pleasant Point. Mr Geaney had for some years been aclively engaged in several business enterprises, and had earned for himself the respect of the residents far and wide. He took a prominent part in any object likely to promote the welfare of the place, and was one of the foremost promoters in the erection of the Roman Catholic Church, be recently retired from hotel keeping and purchased a portion of the Raukapuka estate, and it was on a return from a visit to his farm that his death occurred. He was 44 years of age, and leaves a widow and six children, for whom the utmost sympathy is felt. The funeral will take place on Sunday. His remains will be interred in the cemetery at Timaru.