DEATH OF BOY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 180, 1 August 1944, Page 2

DEATH OF BOY

FATAL BULLET WOUND ACCIDENT WHILE AT PLAY (0.C.) WAIHI, this day. When two of the young sons of Mr. Graham Cornes, miner, of Kinny Street, were playing with a .45 service revolver at their .home about 8 o'clock this morning, the firearm exploded ana a bullet entered the right groin of Eldon Graham Cornes, aged 12. The boy was hurried to the hospital, but he died almost immediately after he was admitted. The revolver when examined by the police was found to contain six cartridges, one of which was discharged.

The brothers apparently found the revolver in a cupboard when they were looking for a bottle of sauce, and loaded «t with bullets found in a drawer in the kitchen dresser. Frederick Laurence Cornes, aged 10, is stated to have pulled the trigger several times without result and when it did function the shock of discharge caused the boy's hand to move, with the result that the bullet entered his brother's right groin and passed through his stomach. The father of the boys had left home for work before the accident occurred. Mr. Cornes is a widower and the father of three boys and one girl. An inquest into the boy's death was opened and adjourned.