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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1051, 18 April 1882, Page 2

INQUEST AT MA.URICEYILLE, The District Coroner (Dr H. T. Sprat hold an inquest on the body ;of the la! Carl Charpentier yesterday, at Maurice ville. A jury of twelve were ompanellei], of which MrQiindbvson was chdssn for.man.

The first witness called was Peter Pettersen, who deposed: I ha* - kqowi} the deceased about ten weeks, an : have not qoticed anything insane abo 1 him, Deceased came to stay with me my camp to shoot oigeons, &c. "When 1;; had been there about three hours, andwj were all preparing to go to bed, I ask I him to'have some supper. He said U was wet, and would change his clothe?. His portmanteau was taken to him to a tent about ten yards away from ours. Wo then went to tea. Shortly after wo heard the report of a pistol, and look'i g into the other tent we could see, the deceased' sitting up in bed with the pisfol in his hand. I'called out!' Don't play wiih that thing." He said, "Givejay respec a to my Mends and relations," and then fired again, I saw the pistol go off, It was close to his forehead, He fell backwards and died immediately, I ran to him, but he was dead before I reached him. The pistol was a little revolver, charged with small bullets. I noticed today that all the barrels were empty but one. The deceased seemed quite right in his mind when he came to the camp, but before he went to bed he was getting rather rowdy, and had evidently been drinking a good deal, He had three bottles of whiskey and three of porter with him. He drank while he was at the camp a bottle and a half of whiskey," and two 1 pottles of porter.' { came to tjiat conclusion hy noticing fchem erilpty and knowing how little the other men drank

Carl Peter Johanson deposed: I was ope of the men at work for Mr Pettersen. Deceased came to the camp on Sunday afternoon, bringing several bottles of whiskey and porter, He offered us men some, and we all drank a little. Deceased drank a great deal, and very often. .He was drunk when we had tea, in my opinion, He went into a tent by himself, I heard the shots, and ran into the tent and found he was dead. The jury returned the following verdict That the deceased Carl Charpentier committed suicide' by Bhooting himself through the head with a pistol on the 16th day of April, 1882, in the Forty Mile Bush near Mauriceville, he being at the time under the influence of drink."