BOATING FATALITY.
FARMER'S LIFE LOST.
DROWNED IN MATAURA RIVER
[BY TELEGRAPH, — PRESS ASSOCIATION.] INVERCARGILL, Monday.
A farmer, Mr. Horace Monteath, aged 32, a married man, was drowned yesterday afternoon in the Mataura River when a boat capsized. His body has not yet been recovered. -NZ Herald, 3/3/1931.
FARMER DROWNED
BOAT CAPSIZES
TRAGEDY AT GORGE ROAD BODY NOT RECOVERED
At about 3.30 on Sunday afternoon a drowning fatality occurred at Gorge Road as the result of which Horace Monteath, a married man, aged 32 years, lost his life. Mr Monteath, with a young mate named Mervyn Chisholm, was sailing a boat on the Mataura river when it was overturned by a gust of wind. Both men, clinging on to the bottom of the boat, were carried almost half a mile down stream until the boat was caught upon a snag in the river about two miles below the new bridge on the Invercargill-Fortrose main highway. As it was being dragged below the water, the men decided that the only means of saving the desperate situation lay in an attempt to swim the 30 yards or so to the shore. Mr Monteath was not a swimmer, but Mr Chisholm pluckily endeavoured to take him to safety. The struggle proved too difficult, however, and, Mr Monteath’s grasp relaxing, the unfortunate man was drowned.
Mr Chisholm, himself, only managed to reach the bank and then in an absolutely exhausted condition. He made his way, with all possible haste, to the nearby farm house of Mr T. Smith, who at once organized a search party. Dragging operations were commenced immediately and continued till midnight and were renewed again all day yesterday, but so far success has not attended the efforts.
The particular part of the river where the deceased disappeared is not only about 24ft in depth, but is also full of snags, hence dragging is proving very difficult. The late Mr Monteath, who was a farmer at Gorge Road, leaves a wife and an eight-months-old child. The deceased was the son of Mr Thomas Monteath, the veteran ex-headmaster of the Edendale School. -Southland Times, 3/3/1931.
Body Recovered.
Advice was received by the police last evening that the body of Horace Monteath, who was drowned through his boat capsizing on the Mataura river on Sunday, March 1, was recovered about 3 p.m. yesterday about ten chains below where the accident happened. During the past fortnight all residents of the district have assisted in the search for the body of the unfortunate man, but it was apparently retained under water by a snag and came to the surface only yesterday. -Southland Times, 16/3/1931.
DEATHS
MONTEATH — The result of a drowning accident in the Mataura River, at Gorge Road, on March 1, 1931, Francis Horace, beloved husband of Agnes Mary Monteath; aged 32 years. The funeral will leave his late residence, Gorge Road, at 1.30 p.m. on Tuesday, the 17th inst. for the Fortrose Cemetery. Friends please accept this (the only) intimation. — Macdonald & Weston, Undertakers. -Southland Times, 16/3/1931.
ACCIDENTAL DEATH
FRANCIS HORACE MONTEATH.
VERDICT AT INQUEST.
“That the deceased accidentally met his death by drowning in the Mataura River due to the capsizing of a boat, no blame being attachable to anyone.”
The above verdict was returned at the inquest held yesterday afternoon into the circumstances surrounding the death of Francis Horace Monteath, a farmer of Gorge Road, aged 32 years, whose body had been recovered the previous afternoon from the Mataura River in which it had been immersed since March 1, the date of the unfortunate accident.
The inquest was held at the residence of the deceased at Gorge Road before Mr L. A. Niederer, Justice of the Peace, and four jurors. Constable T. C. Swan conducted the police proceedings.
After the evidence had been taken of Mervyn Mackie Chisholm, a lad who was with the deceased at the time the boat capsized and who with difficulty regained the shore; Thomas Smith, a farmer, of Gorge Road to whom the first witness reported the tragedy; and Malcolm Harry Tom Monteath, who the previous afternoon had recovered his brother’s body, the verdict as above was returned. -Southland Times, 17/3/1931.
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