FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1282, 17 May 1880, Page 2

FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.

A youth named Charles Haggie, aged 16 years, met his death last evening through the accidental discharge of a gun, The particulars of the s&d occurrence, as related by George Finn, who was in the company of the deceased, are as follow : The deceased and Finn left Oarnaru for the purpose of indulging in a day's shooting, the deceased carrying a doublebarrelled, and Finn a single-barrelled gun. After going as far as the Kakanui River, they made their way tq the store of M>". Q'Grady. Here they stopped for a short time, and then started on the road for Oamaru. About half a mile from Reidston, they turned into a paddock. On coming out again, the deoeased passed through first, and the guns were handed to him by Finn. Deceased laid both guns, which were loaded, against his right side, and proceeded to button his overcoat. As Finn was getting through the fence, he heard the report of a gun, and, looking up, saw the deceased fall to the ground on his right side. He then turned over on to his back, and said, George, George, I am dying." After breathing for a few seconds, Haggie expired. Finn covered the body with his overcoat, and ran to Mr. O'Grady's for assistance. Mr. O'Grady, after visiting the body, rode into town and gave information to the police. Constable Cleary was despatched to the scene of the accident, and had the body removed to the Medora Hotel. An examination of the body showed that the gun-shot had entered it at the point of the short rib on the right side, causing a wound about an inch and a quarter long by an inch wide. The deceased was, we believe, a well-behaved lad, and had for some time been the main support of his mother, to whom his loss is as severe as it was painfully sudden.