FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2335, 28 June 1887, Page 2

FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.

DEATH OF MR R. WOOD.

Our readers will be much shocked to hear of the sudden death, through a gun accident, of the above named young gentleman, a son of Mr Browne Wood, of Woodlands, Tamahere, and a brother of Mr James Wood<* so well known throughout Waikato. Mr 11. Wood was to have arrived in Hamilton yesterday morning to take up his work in the Bank of New Zealand, he having been transferred to the Hamilton branch from Cambridge, and on his way down from the latter place the fatality occurred. "Very great sympathy is felt throughout the neighbourhood for his parents in their bereavement. An inquest was held yesterday afternoon at Mr Browne Wood's residence into the circumstances attending the occurrence. Mr W. N. Searancke was coroner, and the following jury were sworn: —Captain Steele (foreman), Messrs H. Steele, T. Hinton, l'\ «T. Von Sturmer, T. G. Sandes, and J. Leviss. The jury having viewed the body and inspected the ground at the scene ot the catastrophe heard the following evidence :— Browne Wood deposed: I am a settler residing at Woodlands. I last saw my son, whose name was Roberts Browne Henri Wood, alive on Saturday morning, the 25th inst., just before he went to business at the Bank of New Zealand in Hamilton, he having been transferred the day before from the Cambridge to the Hamilton branch of that bank. I believe he went to Cambridge on horseback after the bank closed on Saturday. He told me he went to Cambridge for the purpose of saying good-b.yo friends, and arrange about getting his traps down. The gun he had was mine, which I had lent him, and he must have been bringing it back to me. A few minutes before 9 o'clock this morning I was sitting in this room with my daughter-in-law, Mrs C, C. Wood, and my daughter Emilie, when we distinctly heard two reports of a gun, as_ if fired right and left in ordinary shooting style. We all then said "Here's Bob." My daughter got up and went on to the verandah to see if she could see her brother corning. Looking into the paddock she saw a horse with saddle and bridle on, and said, "There's Bob's horse in the paddock. I looked and saw the mare with saddle and bridle ou. My daughter went out of the entrance gate, and immediately ran back to tell me that her brother was lying on the ground near the slip rail?. My son was just alive when I got there. He gave two or three gasps after I reached him. I noticed that the upper portion of the right side of his face and head had been completely blown,away. By the Coroner : The mare the deceased rode was a restive one, and quite young, between three and four years old. The slip railH w«re down when I arrived. By the Foreman : Deceased was accustomed to shooting, and it was quite a usual thing for him to shoot pheasants about the place Mrs C. C. Wood was examined, and deposed to seeing deceased lving dead near the slip rails. She was the first person to reach him. David Taylor deposed that he heard two shots fired about 9 o'clock, bub paid no attention to them. He next saw the horse standing with the other farm horses near the wire fence. Mrs C. C. Wood called out to him to come quickly as " Mr. Bob had shot himself." He followed Mrs Wood to where the body was lying, Mr. Wood asked him to go fur the nearest neighbour, Captain McPherson, which he did. He saw a gun lying alongside of deceased. —One of the barrels was closed up with clay, and there was a hole in the ground where it had evidently;..fasory and got choked up after being discharged. He afterwards assisted to carry the body to the house. He noticed that the wattle fence near where deceased was lying was broken down a little.

James McPherson, J.P., called, deposed to seeing deceased lying dead near the slip panels. He said, 1 thoroughly examined the surroundings and also the body—l examined the gun and found that one barrel was plugged in such a way that it could not have been fired off without bursting. From the position of the body and the gun I formed a theory that the horse must have swerved and run deceased against the wattle fence and that the discharge of the gun took place whilst deceased was on the horse, and that he fell against the fence the muzzle of the gun towards his feet, and the butt near his right elbow. From the manner in which the ti-tree was broken I arrived at the conclusion that deceased had tho reins in his left hand and the gun in the right hand. The mud in the barrel bein;; so strongly plugged shows that the gun must have fallen on the ground from some height. lam very clearly of opinion that deceased must have been shot whilst on horseback and not whilst on the ground or on his feet. Amongst other reasons for this theory is the fact that the brains and bones were scattered by tho shots to a distance of, in many parts, at least 30 feet. This could hardly be possible if deceased's head had been as near to the ground as it would be if he was on his feet. The marks of the horse's feet showed clearly that a struggle had taken place on the spot where the body was found. His theory was that the mare in swerving had jammed the gun against the fence, and the triggers, catching in the ti-tree, had exploded both barrels. The jury, after some deliberation, returned the following verdict That the deceased, Roberts Browne Henri Wood, met his death by the accidental discharge of his own gun whilst on horseback." The funeral will leave the residence of Mr Wood at 2 p.m. to-morrow (Wednesday), for the Hamilton East Cemetery.