THE TARIKI FATALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 224, 21 March 1914, Page 3

THE TARIKI FATALITY.

THE IXQUEST. The inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of the boy Wilfred Arundel! James, who was shot at the Tariki horticultural show on March 12, was continued yesterday before Mr. A. S. CrooUe, S.M., district coroner. The inquest had been formally opened and adjourned on Monday last. David Burkett, a boy who lived with his father at Tariki, deposed that he knew the deceased when alive, and re- | membcred seeing him at the Tariki horticultural show on March 12. Deceased was being chased by two girls, and ran - round the hall on the right-hand side. I He did not see deceased again, but about half-an-hour afterwards he heard that deceased had fainted.

Ernest Crossman, of Tariki, saddler, deposed that on March 12 a horticultural show was held in the Tariki Hall. - Witness was a member of the committee. Amongst the attractions at the show was a shooting gallery at the side of the hall. This was lookod after in the evening by witness and another j man named Ackland. The firing point was on a line with the building. The tubing of the gallery was of corrugated iron, four Bft lengths rolled into tube form. The gallery was quite close to the building. About 15 inches from the end of the tube there was a box of earth, and behind this a target. There was a 10ft space between the end of the building and a corrugated iron fence at the back. Between the end of the building and the fence was a barricade to prevent anyone from walking behind the target. On the evening of the show there were two men marking and two at the firing point. Witness did not see or hear of anyone passing the marker. About 9.30 p.m. witness heard that, deceased had fainted. At about 11 p.m. he heard that deceased had been shot. When he heard that, he examined the gallery to see if anyone \had knocked down the barricade, and found it in its orginal position. There was a small opening near the come? tS the hall close to the ground. He knew deqense'd, land (tihought that the place where he was struck would be, on him, about 2ft 6in from the ground if he were standing upright • A bullet from the tube of the gallery would strike the post on the dividing fence, about Bin above the ground. The line of fire was on an incline. The ground at the end of the building whe;c t«o barricade .was, w,as the highest part of the section. The bullet would pass the hall corner of the barricade at about 14in ! above the ground. Seeing that the boy I was struck by the bullet in the place it did, at a height of about 2ft 6in from the ground, he was led to suppose that the boy must have been crawling through the hole in the barricade. In |a prostrate position deceased could have received a bullet in the abdomen. The rifle used was a service rifle, with a service Morris tube and service ammunition as issued by the Defence Department for practice at a 25yds' range. The butt consisted of n box of earth, 2(i by Mby 13 inches. Rehind this were several sloping boards placed to turn to the earth any bullet which might go through the box. In the box there was llin of earth and 2in of board, an inch in front and one behind. In the afternoon no bullets went through the box, and in the evening witness did not know that any had done so, until he heard that deceased was shot, when on examination he found that some bullets had gone through it. The earth in the. box would be sufficient to rob the bullet iof one-half of its original force. Witness had had experience in musketry, and always found the same backing sufficient. A similar gallery had been'used for three years, and no bullets had ever gone through the box, He thought it was quite safe. Since the accident witness had come to the conclusion that the earth in the box must have been slightly damp. Deceased was shooting himself during the afternoon. Witness was certain that all precautions had been taken to prevent anyone passing behind the butts. The sloping boards i at the back of the butts were set at an !-angle of 45 degrees. The bullet holes in the corrugated iron fence were not there before the night of the show, so that there was nothing to indicate to I witness that the butt was unsafe. The same quality of weapon and ammunition bad been used at three previous annual shows.

Dr. E. A. Walker, superintendent of the New Plymouth Hospital, deposed that deceased was admitted to the hospital at 1.30 a.m. on March 13. He was in a state of collapse, with the symptoms of internal bleeding. About iy 2 inches to the left of the navel and on a level with it was a circular wound with dark edges. Owing to deceased's condition no. operation was possible. In Spite of all measures, the boy died at 5.10 a.m. Witness made a post mortem examination on the evening of the 13th. The wound described passed obliquely backwards and inwards, traversing the abdominal wall. The abdominal cavity contained a quantity of blood. The wound was obviously 'made by a bullet of small calibre, travelling at a very high rate of velocity. Deceased died from exhaustion caused by bleednig. The holes in the clothing and the wound in the bodv could have been caused by such a bullet as that produced. From the nature of the internal wound he would say that deceased was crawling through a hole in the barricade and facing the back of the target. It was quite possible that he would not know he was struck bv a bullet The boy was quite clear in 'his statement to witness that a feeling of faintness in the hall was the first indication he received that anything was wrong. H c felt no blow or' piercing- of the bullet George Aekland, of Tiiriki, farmer deposed that he was assisting Cross'man with the shooting range. He corroborated Grossman's evidence.

Henry Allan Buniball, of Tariki farmer, and secretary of the Horticultural Society, gave similar evidence. EXPERT EVIDENCE.

__ Owen Allen Bond, of New Plymouth, Scrgt-Jlajor in the defence force, deposed that he bad bad training extending over 14 years. He considered that when using the Morris tube and the ammunition produced it was necessiirv to have at least three feet six inches of dry earth. If supported by timber an' inch thick at back and front, two feet six inches would be sufficient. The reason that such a quantity of earth was required was that though the first shots would not penetrate far, the more shots fired the further they would penetrate. Substituting sheet iron for wood, the thickness of earth could again be reduced to 20 inches. The difference in wet and dry earth wa3 that a bullet | that would penetrate 10 inches of dry earth would penetrate 18 inches of wet earth. When wet earth was used at the butts, the continual ooundinw of the bullets would dry the earth in its course, with the result that the ton earth would eakc. It was perfectly safe to say that the ordinary Morris tube | cartridges, or those used in a pea-rifle, | would kill at 500 yards. The only reason by which be could account for the bullets penetrating the box' on the date

iii question, and not on previous occasions, wns Unit on the date in question tin- shooting was more concentrated. If the earth were damp, this would also he a contributing cause. He considered that eleven inches' of earth and two inches of timber oised as a butt was decidedly unsafe ahooting. What he said about the penetrating power of bullets used in Morris tubes was the result of his own experiments made on Thursday. There was nothing in any manual about it.

Constable Fitzgibbon, of Inglewood, deposed to an inspection of the shooting gallery. In the front of the box there was a hole about two inches across and a smaller one at the back. A finirer could be inserted into the box, which was free of earth through both holes. In a line behind the box there were five bullet marks on corrugated iron, two or three in the downpipe, and pne in the post. The bullets first came through a joining in the back of the box. Deceased's mother bad said she d'7l not hold the committee responsible. The coroner found that deceased was accidentally shot by being hit by a bullet fired from a rifle at the gallery, and which passed through the butt behind the target, this butt being not strong enough for the purpose for which it was nsed. No blame was attachable to anyone for the accident. The coroner remarked that while the arrangement of the gallery was certainly defective, tflic evidence of Sergt-Major Bond showed th#t the conditions under which a Morris tube could be used with safety were riot generally known, and the committee bad used a range which had been Bafe on previous occasions.