DEATH OF DEERSTALKER

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23962, 1 June 1943, Page 7

DEATH OF DEERSTALKER

INQUEST AT CULVERDEN A verdict of accidental death as a result of a wound inflicted accidentally from a .303 bullet fired from a rifle by Robert Hartley, the bullet severing the vital structures of the neck, was returned by the Coroner (Mr K. D. P. Rogers) at an inquest held at Culverden into the death of Claude Hosier Reeves, a cabinetmaker, of Christchurch, who was killed on a deerstalking expedition on April 24. In evidence, Robert Hartley (Christchurch) said that on April 22, in company with Harold Rutland, Claude Reeves and George Everett, he went to the Lewis Pass road public works camp, where they intended spending the week-end deershooting. On April 24, just after daylight, the four members of the party went out deerstalking. After lunch they paired off, Reeves and himself going together. After a while they separated. Reeves being slightly behind him. He did not see Reeves alive again. He went down a big gully about 50 feet deep, returning about half an hour afterwards and making uphill to look for Reeves. He went back to where he had last seen Reeves, but he was not there. He then entered the bush and shortly afterwards heard two shots fired. They appeared to be a long way off, and he thought they had been fired by Rutland and his mate. After walking approximately five or six hundred yards, he went out on the bank of the creek, in the bed of which he saw deer marks. He sat down on the bank and saw a movement in the edge of the bush about 100 yards away in the creek bed. The sun was shining on the moving object. It looked like a deer rolling. He watched it quite carefully for a while, and being certain in his mind that it was a deer he aimed and fired. The movement ceased. He waited for a while, and as it was impossible to get down the cliff at that place he ran up the hill, and heard a call which he answered A moment or so afterwards Rutland and Everett appeared from the bush. They asked if he had got a deer. He replied that he thought so, and the three then went down into the creek to the place tef which he had fired. There they found Reeves Iving dead with a bullet hole in his neck. There was a deer alongside the body which Reeves had apparently just started to skin. x x Hartley said that he and Everett stayed with the body while Rutland went for assistance. The accident occurred about 1 p.m He was convinced that the movement he saw, and which he took for a deer, actually was a deer that was being moved by Reeves when he started to skin it. Reeves’ clothing, which was khakicoloured, was approximately the same colour as the deer. There had been a large tree which obscured Reeves but did not hide the deer. He and Reeves were the best of friends, said Hartley, and he had no idea that Reeves was in the locality when he fired. Evidence was also given by. Harold Frederick Rutland (Christchurch) and George Everett, and Constable J. McCormick (Culverden). After hearing the evidence, the Coroner commented on the habit of sportsmen wearing clothing the same colour as game animals. ~ _ “I feel it mv duty,” said Mr Rogers “to suggest that sportsmen, especially those coming from the city on to strange country, should be advised to wear clothing of a colour that contrasts with those of'game animals such as deer. There have been several fatal shootings of this kind recently, due in part to the deer-like clothing of the victim. Generally the accident is due to the victim being mistaken for game, and sportsmen should fake care to see that the object they aim at is really what they think it is. To persuade them to do this always is dimcult, but perhaps a suggestion here regarding wearing apparel will have some beneficial effect in the future."