ACCIDENTALLY SHOT.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1917, Page 7

ACCIDENTALLY SHOT.

A MAORI BOY'S DEATH. The adjourned inquest touching- the death of the Maori boy George Rangi, son of Eangi Runata, and aged • years, at Corbett Road on Saturday morning last, was continued befori Mr. A, Croolfc, S.M., district coroner, in the New Plymouth court house yesterday afternoon. Senior Sergeant Bowdc-n conducted the' inquiry on behalf of the police. Dr. W. R. Wade deposed that he had examined the body of the deceased at the hospital morgue on Saturday last, and practically made a post mortem. The front of the shirt was blood-stained, but witness could find no trace of powder or scorching. He would have expected to find such traces had the gun been discharged close to the body, but not if the discharge had taken place a little distance off. In the boy's shirt there was one large rent and two smaller ones corresponding with the wounds on the body, tn the middle of the body, below the breastbone, witness found a large entrance wound, and severe laceration of the abdominal viscera. Numreous small shot and a portion of the shirt were in the abdominal cavity. The injuries had been received obliquely from the right hand side, and horizontally. The cause of death was shock due to the severe injuries sustained from a gunshot wound.

To the coroner: The deceased could have accidentally shot himself only hp drawing the loaded gun towards him by the muzzle, provided the trigger Wl caught on something. He could not have himself reached the trigger. Tamati Te Whanganui, grandfather of the deceased, stated that on Saturday last he saw the boy at his (witness') home. About nine o'clock witness was in his house, when he heard a gun go off, and it startled him. He thought it 6trange to hear a gun, and he went to the front door and on to the verandah. He heard his son, Pchimana, call out "George is killed." "Witness saw his 6on carrying deceased in his arras towards the house, from the direction of the shed. The boy was taken into tlu» house, and wrapped up and taken immediately in a trap to the hospital. The boy was alive when he left the house, but died on the road, at Te Hcnui. The gun produced was in witness' trap jnj the shed on Saturday morning. It had been unusual for the gun to be left there: usually it was kept in a room in the house. Witness had examined the gun about 7 a.m. on Saturday, when he found It unloaded, being anxious to see whether it was loaded or not. He did so because if it had been he would have been angry with his son for leaving a loaded gun about. He had never known his son to leave the gun without unloading it. The deceased wns playing about the house and shed during the morning ■With his little sister, aged four.

To the coToner: The deceased could easily have got tho gun out of the cart in the shed.

Pehimana, son of the last witness, and uncle of the deceased, stated that tjie boy had lived with them at Corbett road, otherwise Kaipahopaho. Witness saw the deceased on Saturday morning playing with his little sister about the shed. That was about nine o'clock. Witness left the boy near the shed, and went to feed' tho pigs about three chains away. While attending to the pigs he heard a gun go off, the sound coming from the direction of the shed. Witness looked towards the shed and saw the smoke. He could not then see the deceased, but on running to the shed he saw the deceased on his hands and knees just inside the door and struggling. The child was bleeding from the etomaeh. Witness spoke to him but he did not reply. Wtiness then carried him to the house. The gun produced belonged to witness. He had been shooting with it on the evening prior to tho fatality, and left it in a trap in the trap shed. He did not usually leave the gun there, but when he got home that night he was very wet, took some of his clothes off in the shed, and left the gun there. He was sure that when he left the guii in the trap it was unloaded. The cartridge case produced was one of the cartridges he had used last year. Only one had been left and it WUs kept in the house with tho gun. The deceased knew where the gun and cartridges were kept, and had seen witness both load and unload the gun. When witness lifted the deceased up to take him to the house lie saw the gun lying on the ground. The muzzle was pointing towards deceased, and about two feet away. Witness had' never seen deceased touch the gun, and bad always warned him against it. To the coroner: Witness believed thedeceased could have loaded the gun.

Senior Sergeant Bowden, hi reply to a remark from the coroner, said the gun and cartridges had not been kept in the living room, but in a stare room that was usually locked. On searching this room he had found a number of cartridges, but not one with ft case similar to the ono found in the gun, which the witness had stated was the only one of its kind left from last year. Witness, continuing, and in answer to the coroner, said he was quite sure he had unloaded the gun at a neighbor's place before returning home on the Friday evening. This was all the evidence. The coroner said the only point was as to whether the gun had been loaded and gone off as it was being dragged out of the cart by. the boy, or whether the boy had possessed himself of the cartridge first, taken the gun from the cart, and loaded it, and that afterwards it had gone off accidentally when he was dragging it The former seemed the most reasonable hypothesis, but he had the evidence before him of the hoy's grandfather and uncle that the gun had not been loaded. That evidence he would not | in anv way discredit, and would, therefore, simply record a verdict thai; the boy had accidentally shot,himself. He wished to add that it was highly Improper for anyone to leave a gun and cartridges within the reach of a child of tender years.