SHOOTING ACCIDENT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 167, 9 August 1909, Page 3

SHOOTING ACCIDENT

■ . AT MANGOREI. SERIOUS STATE OF THE VICTIM. • f About four o'clock yesterday afternoon a shooting accident occurred at ""**"-- 7 Mangorei, and at a late hour last night the condition of the lad was such as to ckuse. grave anxiety. Two youths, it appears, were out shooting together. One Cosbrook, of Fitzroy, about lfl or }7 years of age, was carrying a gun, accompanied by a 14-year-old boy, the Boh of Mr. George Hale, of the Avenue road. They were walking through a little piece of bush near the Mangorei road some little distance on, the tovra ■ side of the Hon. Oliver Samuel's residence, .Hale being in advance of the i other, who was carrying, the gun under his arm. By some unexplained caus'e, the charge in the gun exploded, and the boy Hale received the whole of it in his • teg. At the time, his leg must have been within three or four inches of the 'muzzle of the gun, and the effect, as tan be imagined, was horrible. The charge lodged in the lower portion of the thigh, and blew away every particle Of flesh, the veins and arteries. Pellets of shot were thickly sprinkled all over tile .source of the main blood supply of theieg. The wall joint of the knee, ani - the limb were absolutely destroyed. Dr. Walker was sent tor, and made a hur- • lied trip to the scene, motoring out in ten.minutes and returning in the same time to the hospital with the lad aboard after treatment. There he was operated upen, and the vessels tide to prevent further bleeding. The lad wa6 very ill indeed last night, having lost an enormous amount of blood. It was extremely fortunate that Miss Ruby Clarke, Miss Brewster and some other people were in the locality at the time, and they turned their ambulance instruction to good account in applying tourniquet and.by stopping the bleeding, undoubtedly saved the boy's life.