FATHER SHOT.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 17 June 1936, Page 5

FATHER SHOT.

TRAGEDY NEAR NELSON. ATTEMPTS TO HELP MOTHER (By Telegraph—Press, Association.) NELSON, Last Night. • Joseph Caldwell, aged 46, of Kiwi, met his death this morning just belorc 9 o’clock under tragic circumstances, being shot with a .303 rille by his 15-year-old daughter. Caldwell, who was a wellknown resident of the Tadmor district, was a returned soldier, having served with the AXE. He suffered from the effects of gas while at the war and at times suffered lapses of depression, it being alleged by the residents of the district that ho frequently became rather violent. This morning, it is alleged, he was attacking his wife when his daughter became alarmed and putting a cartridge in the .303 rifle fired it off, it is thought, to frighten her father, but the bullet entered Caldwell’s neck killing him instantaneously. Mr. Winter, who was staying at Kiwi with Air. R. Ricketts, the nearest neighbour to the Caldwells, heard the shot and the scream and went across the paddocks to investigate. Deceased’s daughter ran down to the railway line which runs just behind Caldwell’s house and informed the linesmen who were passing on a trolley that she had shot her father. The police at Nelson were informed and Inspector F. Lewdn, accompanied by Sergeant W. 11. Simister and Constable Houston, of Wakefield, is proceeding to Kiwd to make investigations. Kiw r i is about 45 miles from Nelson.

DECEASED MAN’S BAD TEMPER. .NELSON This Day. The quarrel in the Caldwell family occurred when they commenced to argue over the removal of some sheep from one part of the farm to another. Deceased commenced to ill-treat his wife in the kitchen, and she called to her daughter for help. Such quarrels were frequent as a result of Caldwell ’s bad temper. Deceased frequently used his rifle on the farm, and I his was always left iu the house. The daughter said that she had intended to frighten her father. Her condition was such that she did not remember whether she put a cartridge in the rifle or whether it was already loaded. No arrest has been made, and the police said to-day that a charge would be preferred in due course.