SAD SHOOTING FATALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 170, 11 August 1909, Page 3

SAD SHOOTING FATALITY.

THE CORONER'S INQUEST. Mr. Hi S. Fitzherbert, Coroner, conducted an enquiry yesterday afternoon : into the circumstances surrounding the death of Newton Hale, at the Hospital on Monday morning. It was a painful - acene, the father and the younger brother of the deceased evincing deep distress, which it was physically Impossible, to keep under control. It was especially distressing when the father was called upon to swear that the body be had seea in the morgue on the previous day was that of his boy. teslie Hale, a lad of about twelve y*?™ age. residing with his father, John Hale, at Mangorei, stated that the deceased, Albert Newton Cyril Hale was his brother, aged fourteen years.' Last Sunday afternoon he and his brother went for a stroll to Mr. Hamilton s, about ha!f a mile .from home. Whilst m the house they saw a boy named Cosbrook. They all left the house and went down to the paddocks. Aa they were leaving, Cosbrook took a gun from a shed to shoot birds with, but they shot no birds. The gun was a double - barrelled breech - loader. Be thought Cosbrook loaded it in the shed. Cwbrook carried the gun all the time. When it went off they were in a little b ?f h ' passing along a fairly wide track. He was looking back along the track at the time. Cosbrook had been carrying the gun under his arm, with the muzzle pointing forward. Hit brother fell down, and tried to get up again, crying out, "He's shot me in the X- 8 " 1, ? That Stance thev could, and his uncle, his father, and the a i c * lue SOon afterwards. Cosbrook, nearly seventeen T ra ? with iis parents at titzroy, deposed that on Sunday afternoon he met the two Hale boys at Mr. Hamilton a place at Mangorei.. When they came up to him he asked them to With him " He intended shooting hares and birds. He had only one gun, a double-barrelled breech?l° ng T to Mr " Jorto , who HWH k er , s the road ' but MrHamilton had, he thought, borrowed it. " e „ ca / r ! ed T * hc , g? n . which he loaded in the shed. He had had no permission to take the gun, but took it on his own account, as he had done before. They had gone about half a mile before the gun went off. They were passing through a small piece of bush by the side of the road. He was carrying the gun under his right arm, with the barrel pointing ahead. Newton Hale was in Wont of him, and the other boy behind. He had no idea what caused the gua wgo off. It was not full cocked: Both hammers were down. Just before the P? . off Ne wton Hale was behind, but he jumped in front in order to see who was in a vehicle that was passing Wong the road. He had absolutely no ' Lwt' f ca V W(i the gun to explode. Nothing knocked it. He didn't think the deceased had touched the gun as passed. Tae boy Hale was tonly about a foot away when the gun went The Coroner commented on the manner of carrying the gun, which he charactensed as very dangerous. Dr. E. A. Walker deposed that he was called out on Sunday afternoon to &T . , 430 He i» k? d v IyM « on » Path in a gully HV c ßlde the Junction road 2jf ? % fad been bandaged, with a view to arresting hemorrhage. He had m lost a very large quanKh£i Wl' a suffered severely fro m -Witness applied a proper tourn3! „ an J dressed a large, ugly wound upon the posterior aspect LIV» gh A k ?? e - He then «»>veyed ItLwi? he ? w pl ymo«th Hospital, where the •wound was examined under an anaesthetic. It was found that much of the muscle suWaace and other hwf 9 1 disa ppeared. The main blood vessel si and nerves were torn across, whilst portions were missing. The wound was treated in the usual way, and other measures taken to treat thejiatient s low condition. It was DarTnf Hi 4 ? ? 1 {!° 0<1 au <* the lower f£2i -?v I ''? b I wa « «> Seriously inter"W'tli that amputation in the " l j e of th& thigh would have been had. his condition permitted ? n f Su J»«jnently the lad sank, and In spite of all treatment died at 12 20 y T nin 2- 16 was apparent that the wound was caused by a violentat qunrters TTie only hope there was of sav ing the boy s life was in the application of a tourniquet immediately upon the accident occurring. Death was due tc ®^™ t,on caUsed I>y the excessive loss of Wood consequent on the injurv. n Hale, the father of deceased gave evidence of identification The Coroner returned a verdict ir accordance-with the medical evidence