NEW ZEALAND DISASTERS AND TRAGEDIES
RIVER DROWNINGS
01 January 1840 - 30 June 1881

The following are taken from the "Return of Names of Persons Drowned in New Zealand" from the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives, (commonly known as the AJHRs).

As I have been sent many other New Zealand drownings I have set them up as Miscellaneous New Zealand Drownings. If you have any names you would like to add or can put names to these initials I would love to hear from you.

The AJHR returns are as follows:

- 01 January 1840 to 30 June 1870 - AJHR Vol III 1870 Section D46 - 1115 deaths. "Considerable pains have been taken to make this return as complete as possible, but I (G S COOPER, Under Secretary, Colonial Secretary's Office) regret to say that, from the imperfect state of the old records, it is still far from being an accurate statement of persons drowned in New Zealand Rivers. Names of persons ascertained to have been drowned in harbours, wells, waterholes, swamps and in the sea have been excluded from this return. Cases of drowning in the River Grey are sometimes stated to have occured in the Province of Nelson and sometimes the in the County of Westland. This is accounted for by the inquests being held on either side of the river."

- 30 June 1870 to 30 June 1875 - AJHR F-J Vol II 1875 H37 - 375 deaths.

- 01 July 1875 - 30 June 1877 - AJHR Vol II Part 2 H42 1877 - 179 deaths.

- 01 July 1877 - 30 June 1881 - AJHR Vol II Part 2 1881 H41 - 240 deaths. Unfortunately the names were only given an initial instead of the full name as in earlier returns.

The * denotes the date the body was found. Please note that there are many rivers in New Zealand with the same name (Wai means water in Maori). Province's are no longer used in New Zealand so access to a good gazetteer is recommended or the book "Wises NZ Index to Every Place in New Zealand" be consulted.

For those marked # further information is on https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nzlscant/index.html

From Sooty's Guestbook -2015 - James Souter b. 5th July 1855, Parents Robert Souter and Mary Taylor. Your record indicates that his body was found on 4th June 1878 at Wairoa, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. A number of his family, both Taylors and Souters, had emigrated from Aberdeen to Australia and New Zealand. Several of them drowned at sea (much the same is true of those who remained behind.) as their trade was sailing, for the most part.