A DEATH CHASE.

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 272, 7 February 1874, Page 3

A DEATH CHASE.

A ooitaF"»ON*DENT sends to the Daily Telegraph the following extract from a letter which he has received from his aon, who is at a provinciil boarding Bchool : — " Yeqterday we htd a paper chase. I was not in the pack, but followed p*rt of the way. The first dikh was about two and a-half yards m ide and one and a-qtiarter deep. Only one or two clearod it ; all the rest jumped into the middle, and scrambled thron ha* best they could. .Some fell on their bachs, and cauu* out in an awful plight The next one was a little wider, and a very swift stream indeed, and came up to about your shoulders. One boy dived in and swam across. Soon after it began to hail and rain very hard. There was also n very high wind ; anl the poor fellows, dressed oily in a jersey and ducks, were drenched a third time. Two ' new boys out of my study ran, A aud B. A came in all right B wis drenched to the skin, besides being very tired ; and, amongst all the rain, hail, and wind, started for home Two brothers, , walkel with him to within » couple of fields of home ; then he lagged behind, said be was tired, and told them to leave him and go quicker if they liked and not to mind .him. B. didn't appear nt tea, and his brother was rery anxious about him, and told Mr , who is his assigned master. So at 7HO Mr and the sergeant with luut-eriu, and all the monitors as well as a crowd of boys, went out to look for him, and found him about 10.15 p.m. on the play ground — dead, lying down both numbed and at iff, where he had been for some time. He had been out in all the wet and hail and wind the .vhole night, till 1015. He was lying down with one hand on hit head, and the other stretched out. I caw him go through the ditches with all the other follows, being drenched and covered with dirt. The doctor at firat did'nt know if he was dead or not, but found afterwards tliat lie was mark dead. Ho was only 12 years old and wan a little weak fellow, with nothing on but a loose jersey and ti onsen and stockings aud hoots, with no hat, ami tli us clail was out in all the tvind, hail, fiad ruin, bc-iJes P being nearly orer head in water in two ditches. His father ii ill, unJ Ins mother is blind. I believe tlio sergeant has gone to , wliero he lives, to break the news, but I am not .^ure. We aru all very sorry for him, aiid hit brother ; and fai/uer and mother."