STATION COOK’S ORDEAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 July 1939, Page 6

STATION COOK’S ORDEAL

CRAWL OF OVER FIVE HOURS THROUGH SNOW.

AFTER BEING KICKED BY HORSE.

(By Telegraph—Press Assocratlon.)

ASHBURTON, This Day.

An agonising journey of half a mile that took over five hours to accomplish, covered on his stomach, through three inches of snow, while snow fell, was the experience of Thomas Taylor, a cook at Glen Fallock Station. Rakaia Gorge, aged 50. yesterday morning, after a horse had kicked him, causing a suspected broken thigh. Mr Taylor was the only person at the station when the accident happened at 10 a.m. and it was three o’clock before he reached the house, covered with icicles. He managed to get inside, and by an effort he is too dazed to remember removed his clothing and crawled into bed. Two other occupants of the house, Messrs Hector Urquhart and J. Rouse, did not return till 11.30 p.m. After giving Mr Taylor tea and food, the two men performed the difficult task of transferring him to a motor packed with mattresses and blankets. A start for Ashburton was made at 2 a.m., in a freezing temperature. The first twenty miles were the worst, as there was little more than a track over shingle fans and numerous streams. The greater part of this section was traversed in second gear, Mr Taylor joking with his companions as the car jolted from one rut to another. Ashburton was reached at eight o’clock this morning.