WAITARA SHOOTING CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 300, 16 December 1908, Page 4

WAITARA SHOOTING CASE.

ACCUSED BEFORE THE COURT. (By Telegraph-—Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Tuesday. This morning Dr. Goode was brought before Mr. H. S. Fitzherbert, SM., and formally charged with having attempted to murder Mrs. Klenner, at Waitara, yesterday. After the charge had been read out, the Court adjourned to the hospital, where Mrs. Klenner's depositions were taken. Accused was then remanded until Wednesday, the 23rd inst. Mrs. Klenner's depositions, taken at the hospital, ■were as follow: —"I am the wife of Alois Klenner, and live next door to Dr. Goode. Accused came to my house, I think, about half-past three o'clock yesterday afternoon. He walked into the sitting-room, and said "I want to speak to j'ou.' He was the worse for liquor. He said bad things about mc, •which were untrue. He wanted mc to sit on his knee, and said 'You be mine, or 111 shoot you.' I refused, and he fired two shots at mc at short range, and I fell over. He tried to fire a third shot, but the revolver would not go off. I heard him say, 'Are you dead?' I never answered, as I was afraid. I heard him say, 'I am going to get some more whisky, and finish myself.' He then went away.'

Cross-examined by Mr. Wilkes, she said: "Accused was drunk. I could not say how long he was in the room. He was very excited. His language was very unusual. He was very angry when I refused his request. He had been drinking for days. I could not sily if he could walk straight. He tried to shoot himself but the revolver would not go off. He was always my medical adviser since he had been in Waitara. I am quite friendly with him. I think he must have been out of his mind, or he would not have done what he did."

Mrs. Klenner came from Sydney about a dozen years ago to marry Mr. Klenner in Wellington, and has since resided in Waitara, where she was well liked. She has five children.

Mrs. Kk-nner was in a very bad condition this afternoon. She rallied a little lat-sr. The bullets have probably lodged near the spinal vertebrae, affecting the spinal nerves. Her left arm is paralysed. The brain, however, is uninjured, and her mental condition is so far unimpaired. The chief dangers come from inflammation and interference with respiration on account of the windpipe being pierced, and there is also great trouble in feeding her. The latest report to-night is that Mrs. Klenner is much weaker. SMALL HOPE OF RECOVERY. NEW PLYMOUTH, this day. Mrs Klenner, victim of the Waitara ehooting affair, is in much the same condition this morning. There is not much hope of her recovery.