FATHER SHOT BY HIS SON

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 16, 20 January 1902, Page 2

FATHER SHOT BY HIS SON

DIVEEGENT ACCOUNT,

BAIENSDALE, January 14,

A shooting affray of a serious nature occurred at Eagle Point Vinage Settlement this evening, when Charles Henry Buck, a man of nearly CO, received a dangerous gunshot wound during a quarrel with nis son, Lionel Buck, a village settler, with whom he has been residing. The old man was taken to the Bairnsdale Hospital. The bone of the right arm was shattered, and the flesh perforated and torn by the shot. He told the hospital authorities that during the evening he had a quarrel with his son Lionel, in the course of which the latter called to his wife to bring out his gun. She did so, and the son, taking the weapon from her, stood off four or five yards, took aim at him and fired. He fell, and his son then said to him: "If you get up I'll shoot you again." Someone then came up, and, ascertaining what had occurred, rode away for a doctor. Subsequently a settler named Smith brought his cart up, and the wounds having been roughly dressed, the sufferer was placed in a vehicle and conveyed to the hospital, a distance of about eight miles. Buck's injuries are regarded as grave in view of his age. Lionel Buck accompanied his father and Smith to Bairnsdale. Whilst they went to the hospital he visited the police station and gave his account of the affair to Sergeant Bennett. He said that he and his father had a row in the afternoon, during which the old man hit him with a big stick. His wife went into the house and got the gun, which is a double-barrelled breech-loader. As he took it from her his father grabbed at it, and a scuffle ensued, in the course of which the gun went off. He did not, he assured the police, try to kill his father, but "tried to stop him from murdering the whole family, which he believed he would have done." He did not know whether he cocked the gun or not.. Buck was lodged in the cell on a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm. For some time past relations of a very inharmonious nature have prevailed amongst the members of the Buck family. Some little time ago the father was prosecuted by another son for housebreaking, the charge arising out of his chopping his way into this son's house, after, having been warned to stay away from the premises. The charge was ultimately withdrawn on the old man promising to behave himself.