MAORI SHOT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 February 1943, Page 3

MAORI SHOT

ATTEMPT TO TAKE GUN FROM WIFE. DISCLOSURES AT INQUEST. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NAPIER, February 24. Unusual circumstances were disclosed at the inquest at Wairoa on a Maori station hand, Hiram Smith, his wife, Mrs Margaret Smith, stating he was shot, subsequent to a decision on her part to commit suicide, while trying to take a gun from her. Dr. L. A, Riddell, hospital superintendent, said Smith was admitted to hospital suffering from serious gunshot wounds and shock and failed to rally after an operation. In his opinion, the shot could not have been fired by Smith. Frederick Alexander Whyte, sheep station manager, said that his staff included Smith, his wife, Mrs Margaret Smith, and John Tahuri. Mrs Smith stated that her husband had decided to leave her, accusing her of infidelity. She admitted misconduct with Tahuri. While her husband was absent she decided to take her own life. She placed a cartridge in the gin and was sitting on the ground when her husband returned. He grasped the gun by the barrel, trying to take it from her, and in the resultant struggle it exploded, her husband falling to the ground. She threw the gun from her and went for assistance. Questioned, Mrs Smith said that she did not shoot herself after her husband had been shot as there was only one cartridge in the gun and she did not know where the others were kept. She stated that she would not have taken her own life if she had found the cartridges, as she thought differently of it when she saw her husband fall.