A SAD ACCIDENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2973, 4 August 1891, Page 2

A SAD ACCIDENT.

A SEARCH PARTY HI*HIED IX AX AVALANCIIF. THREE LIVES LOST. (IIY TKLKOKAPII.— I'KEKS ASSOCIATION), DuNKni.v, List Xight, Xi:ws 1i::h he«n received in town list. night i>f a sail affair mi till Kyoburn r;uiL:es which it h oMivd linn rr.-ullt'd in the ! .--: -f three if iMt four lives. On Friday n vmm lri'J im»>d Meikie, about 1.", years .if a-«- was Inst en Un; lange. 'file weather was very severe and a seaich party was nt mien (irg.iiiiscil. Among tliu search parly was :i brother nf the 1-id wiio wns lust ami two ethers named Blanchart and Beere. They stinted nut mi Saturday morning to search for lljn. nii.-.ung hid and were nut all diiy, but net reluming in the evening till Kn.ilftt anxiety prevailed Yosterday morning further search purlins wero organised and determined attempts were made tn find them. A cap which w.is identified as having belonged tn cue of tlio young men was found on the ridge of ranges and a closer search revedod the fact that this three had either fallen over a cliff some 50 feet, high or what seems more probablo, that while standing near the edge of the cliff a slip had occurred carrying the ycung men with it. The three were found buried under some fifteen feet of snow nnd inulock. It is understood that ail three were dead when discovered, bul on tins point the information received is not definito. Later. The body nf Alphonsn Beer (aged '20), Robert Blanchard (20), and .fames Meiklo (18), have been discovered. Blanchard was found embedded in six or seven feet nf snow, about a chain from where Beer's body was found, while Meilde was discovered snne 20 or 30 yards further off. The body of Thomas Meikle, aged 11, has not yet be<-n found The tlireo lirstnuned belong to the search party of niii.?, and wlio disapueared from their companions by the snow giving from und'-r them in an avalanche which slipped fuily 100 yards down the mountain side into a Riilly, and then precipitated, with awful velocity, over a perpendicular cliff ")oft. ill depth. The bodies were discovered yesterday by a search party of 200 men from Kyeburn. Blanchard and Beer were evidently killed outright from the fall, but Meiklo's body showed no marks of injury, and it is thoutrht he must have lived for some time after reaching the bottom.