MOUNTAIN TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 76, 30 March 1928, Page 14

MOUNTAIN TRAGEDY.

ACCIDENTAL. SHOOTING. SURVIVOR TELLS THE TALE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHUROH, Thursday.

The accident which led to the death of Andrew Neil Henderson in the mountainous country beyond Lees Valley was described at the inquest at Oxford by Colin Bassett, aged 17.

Bassett stated that he and Henderson broke camp early on Monday morning and were ready about eight o'clock with all their baggage together. "I had loaded niv rifle, a .."503, with aluminiumtipped cartridges, put one cartridge in the breach, and left the rifle halfcocked," continued the witness. "I left it half-cocked on the advice of my companion. 1 wanted to leave it without being cocked at all, but he said that if it got a bump it would go off. I think it was Henderson who placed my rifle against my pack. I went down to see if the fire was extinguished. I heard a shot and turning round saw my rifle falling down and my companion clutching at his chest. The rifle must have been accidentally discharged by some means when Henderson was attempting to get something out of my pack."

Tlie coroner, Mr. E. D. Mosley, in returning a verdict of accidental death, said that death was apparently due to a hemorrhage.

Rescue Party Safe. News was received this afternoon that the second of the two search parties, comprising Dr. L. D. Burnett and Messrs. C. Bassett and E. H. Buckeridge, who set out on Monday afternoon and who were supposed to be lost in the ranges, had returned safely to Oxford. The reason they did not make for Leea Valley yesterday was that Mr. K. Henderson, who was one of the same party, got separated from them and they had spent the day searching for him. Mr. Henderson, however, had reached the camp where the accident occurred and had gone with another party, which carried the body over the mountains.

Dr. Burnett and his two companions did not find the camp and were not aware of the young man's death 'until this morning. >