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Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 734, 1 March 1877, Page 2

> Firing Loaded Guns into thb Air is a dangerous practice, as was'latel? m Manchester. •• The story $ recorded m a letter to tne London {Times, and should be a warning to Volunteers and others having flueayms m thejr note session. In this case the act gauged the sudden death of an errand boy who, while walking "m" a strep); m Manchester, suddenly dropped down dead. ' The surgeon who examined the body found the cause of death to be a ballet whioh had entered the skull exactly at the top. It had been fired m the air from a rifle, and having reached a certain height when its force was spent, it of course, according to the laws of gravitation, began to descend, and m that descent gathered an accumulative force, equal it is said, to the force with which it was originally pro. jeoted from the rifle. The writer 'points this out by saying that a ball discharge* into toe air 'at 'a convenient angle': and atta maximum height of 500 yards, willwhen it again descends to the level of the rifle's muzzle, have a downward velocity of exactly equal to the upward velocity of a ball of the same weight shot perpendicularly up with force enough to enable it to reach a height of 500 yards » In these tunes when young men and lads are entrusted with arms of preoision and ammunition, this remarkable accident ought to operate as a caution wheu their pieo«ure discharged m the air.