WAIKINO TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 98, 23 October 1923, Page 4

WAIKINO TRAGEDY

FUNERAL OF THE VICTIMS "I WANT TO GO HOME TO MY MOTHER/ (BY lEUGR.WB PRESS ASSOCIATION.} WAIHI, 22nd October. The funeral of the two victims of the Waikino schoolhouse tragedy, when the two lads, Kelvin if. M'Lean, aged 13, and Charles A. Stewart, a^ed 9, were shot dead by John C. Higgins, took place at Waihi Cemetery yesterday afternoon. The hearse bearing the coffins was followed by several hundreds, including- the teachers and pupils of the Waihi. and Waikino Public Schools. ' The' community is still profoundly stirred by the awfulness of the mail's j act, and the grave anxiety felt for the lives of Mr. Robert T. Reid, head- I master of the school; Constable H. J. Olsen, and Alexander Bustard, aged ' 13 years. . I Some slight improvement in the condi- ! tion of Mr. Reid, Constable Olsen, and ■ the youth Bustard, -was reported to-day, while the girl Kathleen M'Garry is out'l of danger. A pathetic incident is reported in the case of tiie shooting- of the lad M'Lean. The latter, appealing put out his hands to Higgins, and said: "You won't shoot me, Mr. Higgins. I want to go home to my mother.' The lad was well known to Higgins, the lad's father and Higgins being- neighbours. In the shooting of the lad Raymond Shaw, the latter was in the act of climbing out of a window when the bullet struck him on his fingers, which' caused him to fall back into the schoolroom. He crawled and hid under the desks, and later, when Higgins was shooting in another part of the building, he made a second and successful attempt to climb put of the window. According to Higgins's own statement > to the police, it appears he had no par- 1 tocular resentment against the Education Board, and made no complaint against i the headmaster or teaching staff. He said that during- the past three years he j had lost three or four horses, and the i loss he attributed to the action of settlers in the neighbourhood. He said the devil entered into him when he shot Air ■Keid, and he did not clearly know what he was doing after, but., added that he was sure he did not fire" at any girl. Higgins has a wife and two boys aS v A8 m£ 6 years- T^ forr»or left school last Christmas, and the other had not started to go to school. The wife is a small, thin woman, whom he marred m Canada, just before leaving that country for New Zealand. .TWine i C years on the present hush hold-In* the wife had only been in Waik-no townsnip about half a. dozen times.