MAORI BOY SHOT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 847, 16 December 1929, Page 16

MAORI BOY SHOT

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST From Our Own Correspondent OPOTIKI, Today. An inquest was held at Maraenui before Mr. W. N. Coughlan, J.P., concerning the death of the Maori boy Puritia Topi, aged eight years, who was killed on Friday afternoon by a pea rifle bullet. Rana Topi, mother of the dead child, said she was washing on Friday afternoon when her son Mita told her that Puritia was bleeding. She went home and found him lying dead on a bed. She did not see a gun. Mita Topi, a brother of the deceased, said that when he returned from school he saw his brother with a gun. Witness was outside when he heard a report. He went and told his mother. Petai Topi, father of the boys, said the rifle was his property. It was kept in the house behind the bed. Deceased knew how to handle and load it. The rifle was not loaded when witness last handled it. A bullet had entered the left breast and come out at the back. A verdict was returned that Puritia Topi met his death through the discharging of a rifle, no evidence being available jto show how it happened.