DROWNING FATALITY.
A very sad drowning fatality occurred in the district last Saturday afternoon A young man named Alfred Blakely, a son of Mr John Blakely, of Gimmerburn, was driving an eight horse waggon load of chaff from the Styx to his father's farm in Gimmerburn. He was accompanied by a young man named Brent. When they got to what is known as Hall's ford (near Mr T. Hall's section) deceased took a hack and rode across the river to see if it was fordable. He got across alright but when returning to the waggon the horse was seen to give a plunge, but the rider stuck to him. Shortly afterwards he gave another plunge and both it and the rider disappeared. When the animal again reappeared it was riderless.
The river was in a condition of high flood and there was a fairly strong current running, and it appears that when returning to the Patearoa side the horse got washed down about 10 yards and the bank at the spot where it tried to land was too high, and it fell back.
The police and others dragged the river on Sunday and the body was found shortly before 3 o'clock about 250 or 300 yards further down. Deceased's watch had stopped at twenty minutes to 5.
An inquest was held at his father's residence on Monday, the jury returned a verdict of accidentally drowned.
Deceased was not quite 22 years of age, and his tragic and sudden end spread quite a gloom over the neighbourhood, and the deepest sympathy is felt for his friends.
The remains were interred in the Gimmerburn cemetery on Tuesday.
The Rev Mr Standage officiated. -Mt Ida Chronicle, 10/7/1908.
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