FATAL WOUNDS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 57, 9 March 1942, Page 3

FATAL WOUNDS

SEQUEL TO FIRE

SHOOTING SENSATION

(P.A.) OAMARU, Saturday. As a sequel to an alleged attempt to set fire to the residence occupied by Mrs. J. S. Main and her family at the Government fish hatchery at Hakataramea, Clarence Gilbert Oliver, aged 33, manager of the hatchery, died in the Oamaru Public Hospital at 7 a.m. to-day. He was allegedly shot by James Main, aged 12, Mrs. Main's elder son, and the weapon used was a shotgun, the charge pf which struck Mr. Oliver on the right shoulder, chest and face. It is alleged that Mr. Oliver set fire to the hatchery residence, which is still occupied by Mrs. Main, whose husband, prior to his death some time ago, was manager of the hatchery.

The fire was discovered in its incipient stages, and investigations by the family indicated that a quantity of scrim, saturated with kerosene, had been placed under the house and then ignited. Subsequently Mrs. Main and her family, watching from a window of the house, observed a man cautiously approaching the dwelling. They called cut to him to go away, but the request, it is alleged, was ignored, and when he still continued to approach, young James Ma-fn, using the window ledge as a rest, fired the shotgun, the charge from which sent the intruder to the ground, where he lay motionless in the moonlight. Mrs. Main, assisted by her daughter and two young sons, aged 12 and 14 respectively, subsequently took the injured man, who proved to be Mr. Oliver, into the house, where they attended to him as best they could prior to the arrival of Dr. Z. Aitken, of Kurow, and Constables J. I. Preston and W. Voyce. Mr. Oliver was later taken in an ambulance to the Oamaru Public Hospital, where he died at 7 a.m.

An inquest was held this afternoon for the purposes of identification.