Maori Boy Shoots Sister

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 43, 21 February 1938, Page 6

Maori Boy Shoots Sister

TRAGEDY ON NORTHERN PARM Per Press Association. WHANGAREI, Last Night. A two-year-old Maori girl was shot by her brother, aged six years, at Rangiahua on Thursday evening. The victim was Mary Ann Toe, of Rangiahua, a daughter of Fred and Charlotte Toe. She was killed instantly. Evidence at the inquest showed that the father on returning from a pig shooting expedition, put a double barelled shotgun which was unloaded, in the corner of the one-roomed whare. A box containing six cartridges was placed on the top of a high shelf. George Toe, the boy, was warned not to touch either the gun or the cartridges and he was left in charge of deceased and a baby aged three months while both parents went to the milking shed. Later the boy climbed to the shelf, removed one cartridge, loaded the gun and placed the muzzle t~ the head of his sister, pulling the trigger. After the shooting the boy placed the gun back in its previous position and remained in the whare. Another sister, Bella, aged eight, who had been assisting with the milking, wa: sent to the whare on an errand and made the tragicdiscovery of her sister Mary’s body lying across the floor.