Coroner’s Court Hare-Shooting Trip Resulted In Tragedy

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28832, 28 February 1959, Page 11

Coroner’s Court Hare-Shooting Trip Resulted In Tragedy

By an amazing coincidence a shot fired at a hare sitting on top of a mound in the Hororata district as dusk was falling went over the top and struck a companion of the shooter on the other side, the Coroner (Mr E. B. E. Taylor) was told yesterday. The Coroner found that Rex Primo Beswick, aged 23, died at Hororata on January 9, the cause of death being hemorrhage due to a lacerated wound of the right lung caused by a rifle bullet when he was accidentally shot. Sergeant F. W. Flanagan appeared for the police in this and other inquests held yesterday. Allan James Calder, aged 18, an apprentice carpenter, of Hororata, said that an January 9, 1959, Beswick, who was his brother-in-law, was staying at Hororata. After the evening meal he and Beswick decided to shoot hares. It was a fine, clear evening. They walked across a property and came to a boundary where there was a line of pine trees, said Calder. They then separated. He walked through the line of trees and then saw a hare run into the trees. It came out again and then stopped about 80 yards in front of him. He took aim and fired at the hare, which was on a mound. The witness said he was not aware that Beswick had come through the trees some distance further on and was on the other side of the mound. He did not see him, but apparently he was on the other side of the mound, directly in his aim. After the shot, which missed, the hare scampered away, the witness said. A few seconds later he heard Beswick call out “Allan” in a weak voice. He did not know where he was, and naturally thought he was on the other side of the trees and was calling out because he had seen a hare. As he walked over the mound he saw a dark object on the ground. He found Beswick lying on his right side, groaning. He was badly injured, and when spoken to did not reply. His face was covered with blood and he was bleeding from the mouth. “I realised then that the shot I fired at the hare on the mound had hit Beswick, as I had only fired one shot that evening,” said the witness and he then ran for help. Struck By Bus The Coroner found that John Elder Bennett, aged 72, died on January 14, the cause of death being shock from multiple injuries sustained when he was struck by a Christchurch Transport Board bus.

Robert Hope Moncrieff Aitken, aged 28, a bus driver employed by the Christchurch Transport Board, said that on January 14 he was driving a bus along Papanui road towards Cashmere. When approaching the St. Albans street intersection, about 5.20 p.m., he saw an elderly man step off the footpath between two parked cars. He braked down to 15 miles an hour so that he could stop, if necessary.

The man stopped when he reached the outside of the parked cars, and looked directly at the bus, and it was clear that he was waiting for it to go past, the witness said. He removed his foot from the brake to the accelerator but before there was any change in speed and when the bus was only a few feet from the man, the latter fell directly into its patji. He appeared to have fainted, for he did not take any steps but fell forward. As the man fell the front bumper of the bus struck him and he passed from his sight underneath the bus, said the witness. As soon as he saw the man fall the brakes were applied and the bus stopped in about 12 feet. He got out and found a man lying under the bus immediately behind the left front wheel, which had obviously passed over him. Vera May Bourn, a married woman, said that the bus driver had no chance of avoiding the accident, and stopped his vehicle very quickly. Leslie Wilkinson, a scientific officer of the Dominion Laboratory, said that specimens of Bennett’s blood and urine contained alcohol. Dr. C. T. B. Pearson, a pathologist, said Bennett showed evidence of a very severe heart disease and would be liable to faint because of this condition. Girl’s Death Although a car, driven by Russell Leonard Clark, aged 20, which struck a small girl at Loburn. causing fatal injuries, had a warrant of fitness, Constable E. G. Smith said he considered it not fit to be on the road. He was giving evidence when the inquest into the death of Pauline Joan Wheeler, aged six, was concluded. The Coroner found that the girl died at Rangiora on October 23, the cause of death being cardio-respiratory failure with lacerations of the brain. Constable Smith said he had tried out the car and found that it wandered through loose steering and the vehicle slewed to

the right when the brakes were applied. Clark said he was driving his car to work along the Whiterock road and that wind was blowing up clouds of dust at the time, making visibility difficult. He did not see the girl come out of a gate on a bicycle until it was too late. He stopped immediately and went to her assistance and picked her up and laid her on the grass off the side of the road. Then the girl’s mother came along from her home, a short distance away. He was travelling about 35 miles an hour at the time and was alone in the car. The weather was fine and the shingle surface of the road had been graded the day before the accident. To Mr A. C. Fraser Clark said that he had pulled up in three or four yards from the position where he struck the girl. He had not seen the girl come out the gate. To a question by counsel a police witness said that Clark had been prosecuted on a charge of negligent driving causing death, and had been fined. The distance from the gate to where the girl was picked up was 95ft in a direct line. Suicide Verdicta The Coroner found that David Woodcliffe Williams, aged 66, committed suicide on January 21 by taking arsenical weed killer, and that- Victor Chamberlain Ward, aged 56, committed suicide on or-about December 14, the cause of death being carbon monoxide poisoning.