PURELY AN ACCIDENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8106, 29 March 1906, Page 5

PURELY AN ACCIDENT.

GISBORNE, March 27. An accidental shooting case waa investigated at the Magistrate's Court to-day, a young man, Peter , Peters 'U, being defendant. No evidence was ottered on the more serious oharge, and accused waa then charged with having on the 18th instant, at Motu, caused actual bodily harm to Edward Whiting, under such circumstances that if death had resulted he would have been charged with manslaughter. Peterson had been invited to a whare to dinner. Whiting was shaving outside the whare, aDd on entering the but accused picked up a. gun he noticed standing against the wall. He went tu open it, and, being accustomed to another gun, he lifted the hammer in order to open the breach. After lifting the hammer the charge exploded before he got the gun open. A hole 1 aboat half-an-innb in diameter was hlown through the wall, ani the charge cut Whiting's leather belt, several shots penetrating the abdomen. Accuse i admonished Whiting for leaving a loaded gun in the whare. The Magistrate said, although aooused had shown carelessness, it waa purely a case of accident, which he would not be justified in sending t? the Supreme Court. Whiting is still an inmate of the hospital, but i 3 making a good recovery.