SHOOTING FATALITIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 June 1937, Page 7

SHOOTING FATALITIES

COUNTY CLERK KILLED MISHAP IN BUSH [PEB PBESB ASSOCIATION.] NELSON, June 21. A shooting accident occurred in the Matakitaki Valley, Murchison district, yesterday afternoon, resulting in the death of Mr. I. T. Edwards, County Clerk of Murchison. Edwards was out in the Matakitaki River district’ on a shooting expedition, accompanied by Mr. Hamon, Government Auditor, and was carrying his rifle on his shoulder, when he slipped and the weapon discharged. The bullet entered the. back of his head killing him instantly.

Hamon came out of the bush until he could see a road/And managed to attract the attention of a passing motorist, by means of a fire, and by flashing a torch and firing his -rifle. It was then nearly dusk. c The police at Murchison were informed. Constable Hart was in charge 'of a party that brought the body out at 3.30 o’clock this morning. Deceased leaves a widow and a daughter, aged six years.

SCHOOLBOY SHOT DEAD.

GISBORNE, June 20.'

A shooting fatality occurred on Saturday morning at Rototahi Station, on the east coast. The victim was a 14-year-old schoolboy, Riwai Paenga. The boy took a shotgun, and, in company with a cousin of eight years, he wept shooting. When climbing through a fence the weapon discharged and Riwai was shot dead.

ANOTHER BOY KILLED.

AUCKLAND, June 20.

A fatal shooting accident occurred , to-day at Takahue, near Kaitaia, when Kenneth Vivian, Kirthan, aged 12, an adopted son of W. Kirthan, received the charge from a shotgun. The boy, in company with a cousin, Harold Kirthan, aged 16, with whom he was staying, went on a shooting expedition on the farm of his uncle. While the boys were sitting down for a rest the younger boy decided to have a shot and reached to take the gun from the elder - boy. The gun went off and the charge entered the boy’s right breast. '

MOTORING VICTIMS FATHER AND SON KILLED BLENHEIM, June 20. A motor accident costing two lives, the driver of the car and his little son, occurred near Waihopai on the Blen-heim-West Coast highway about 15 miles from Blenheim shortly after 5 o’clock on Saturday evening, when a motor-car and a heavily-laden motorlorry met in a head-on collision on a small bridge. ■ < The victims of the accident were:-— Frank Donaldson, aged about 34, (motor salesman fqr H. R. Dix' and Sons, Blenheim), the driver of the car; killed instantaneously. lan, Donaldson, aged six, son of the driver, died several hours later in hospital.' Mrs. Donaldson suffered minor injuries and suffered severely from shock. A second child, a girl aged five years, escaped uninjured. ( The lorry, belonging to Gosling and Sons, and driven by Frank Moreland, of Blenheim, was bringing a load of coal from near Murchison to Blenheim. Donaldson was proceeding to the Wairau Valley. The vehicles met with a terrific impact .ouJa small one-way bridge in a dip in the road. Donaldson’s car was' almost off the bridge ’when the right-' front wheels of the vehicles met. The wheel of the car w r as torn off. The deck of the lorry then struck the car abdht level with the driver’s head, ripping out the side of the car, which was thrown against the side of the bridge, smashing the railings. As an indication of the force of the impact, broken glass from the car’s windscreen was thrown more than 50 feet ahead of where the car came to a standstill. Donaldson wms formerly a 'wellknown racing motor-cyclist. •

FATAL FALL CHRISTCHURCH, June 20. Dorothy Helen White, single, aged 27 years, of 27 Peverel Street, Riccarton, who was found lying beside a mo-tor-cycle, off which she had apparently fallen, on the Main South road on the Christchurch side of Norwood station about 9 o’clock on Saturday morning, died at the Qhristchurch Public Hospital, at 9.45 the same evening., Miss White was discovered on the road by a passing lorry driver, Mri W. P. Jarden. She was suffering from head injuries, and was taken to hosi pital. WESTPORT TAXI-DRIVER. WESTPORT, June 20. Returning yesterday from Greymouth, George Symons, a taxi driver, got over the bank when passing a lorry on the Westport side of Nile Bridge. Symons suffered back injuries, and shock, and was admitted to hospital. A passenger named Duncan, suffered slight head injuries' The car was badly damaged. FOUND DROWNED. CHRISTCHURCH, June 19. Last seen at his place of employment at 9.15 a.m., on Thursday last, Keith Melville Lang, a clerk aged thirty-one, was found drowned in the Styx River, about two miles from tho Marshland Road Bridge, to-day. FOUND DEAD BLENHEIM, June 20. Alice Jessie Sarah Rentoul, aged G2 years, wife of Robert Rentoul, a farmer, of Wantwood, Waiau Valley district, was found hanging on Saturday afternoon in a woolshed. She had been mentally depressed.