THE WANGANUI SHOOTING CASE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1987, 7 July 1880, Page 2

THE WANGANUI SHOOTING CASE.

[By Telegbaph.] [PEE PBES3 ASSOCIATION SPECIAL 191112.] AUCKLAND, July 7. The "Wanganui shooting cage was tried yesterday in the Supreme Court. The following is the exciting feature of the mystery. The jury was locked up all night, but without agreeing. This ia the story : three persons, two men and a woman, were sitting together after tea, one of the men was reading aloud. Without any provocation, nor any previous quarrel, the other put a sixchamber revolver, loaded, close to the back of the other man and fired. Having discharged one chamber he immediately discharged another, one bullet passing through the prosecutor’s coat and vest and sticking fast in his leather braces. The other bullet hae never been found. The man assailed was not dangerously wounded. It must have been little short of a miracle. Which of the balls it was that made the holes in the man’s coat and waistcoat, then lodging in the braces (for there three perforations corresponded, and were evidently made by the one bullet) cannot be said. Where did the other bullet go ; how was it that it made no other mark on the prosecutor’s clothes or person ? What was the motive of the act is a matter for conjecture. The only motive suggested by the evidence was repudiated by all parties alike. That the pistol was a lethal weapon appeared from the fact that the constable discharged four chambers under the Court buildings, and that the bullets went deep into the stout boards. The jury, after retiring, came into Court several times to ask the Judge for direction upon points touching on the solution of the mystery. His Honor could cot give them any assistance as to the facta or what credibility to be attached to the evidence. The demeanour of the prosecutor and his wife was considered highly favorable to them. The jury will probably be discharged this morning without solving the puzzle.