FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7819, 11 June 1909, Page 2

FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.

A shocking accident occurred on the farm of. Mr Con. Flynn, Mitcham, yesterday afternoon, and ended fatally, to a lad, sixteen years of age, named John Booth, who was m the employment of Mr J. Stephens, Blacksmith. It appears that Mr J. Stephens, junior, and the lad Booth went out to Mr Flynn's farm on Thursday afternoon to shoe several horses, to have th.em m readiness for a clearing sale, and after this work had been carried ,out, Mr Flynn offered a number of fowls to Stephens .and the lad Booth, and pror vided them with a gun with which to shoot the birds. Booth, who.was considered a good hand with the gun, fired a number of shots and then went into a shed where the fowls had taken refuge on the cross-pieces of timber. Having only one cartridge left, he said to his companion: "I will not waste this cartridge, Jos, but will knock them over with a stone." Ho had picked -up a stone or some other missile, and m the act of .throwing it at the fowls, the gun, which was still m his hand m some position,- exploded, "and the full charge entered his right side. ' The lad, who was conscious, , r chatted freely, and remarked during the journey to Ashburton: "It is no ; good speaking otherwise, Jos; I am finished." He was taken to the hospital, where only faint hopes were entertained for his recovery; and he gradually sank, and expired at 3 o'clock this morning.