Ralph Chittenden nearly drowns age 3, lived to fight another day.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXIII, Issue 16, 20 January 1899, Page 2 --- NARROW ESCAPE FROM DROWNING. PLUCKY ACTION BY BOYS. As a number of children were playing on the banks of the Brook, near the Bronte street footbridge, between three about four o'clock yesterday afternoon, a three year old child named Ralph Chittenden fell into the stream, which was in flood at the time.

The other boys, named Henry Howard, Cecil Young, and John Frank, were on the bank, and they made efforts to save the child. Young Frank, who is only eleven years of age, rushed into the stream and succeeded in getting hold of the child, but the current was so strong that he was unable to get him to the bank and both were swept down the stream. Frank lost his hold of the child, and before reacting Manuka street he was carried against a barb wired fe