GIRL SHOT DEAD

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 1, 2 January 1924, Page 4

GIRL SHOT DEAD

TRAGEDY NEAR BLENHEIM,

CHILDREN AND FIREARMS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) BLENHEIM, Tuesday. A sad tragedy occurred at Waikakaho, near Blenheim, yesterday afternoon. Noel Register, aged nine, was playing with his little sister Sybil, aged four, and his brother Bob, aged six. He picked up a gun standing 1 in the corner of the room and took a cartridge from a drawer in a duche3s chest and loaded the weapon. The gun slipped, and in endeavouring to grasp it the boy Noel touched the trigger. The charge exploded, blowing off half the little girl's face and killing her.

At the inquest the coroner, Mr. E. J. Hill, found that death was due to shock and hemorrhage following a gunshot wound. He commented on the fact that people still persisted in what amounted to criminal negligence in leaving firearms and ammunition where little children could get access to tbem. In the present case the little boy Noel did not point the gun at bis sister, the tragedy being accidental, but he admitted he had played the same game on various occasions, thinking the cartridges were empty.