THE FATAL GUN ACCIDENT AT MOHAKA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9604, 31 August 1894, Page 5

THE FATAL GUN ACCIDENT AT MOHAKA.

[bit tklkgraph.—•prbss association.] Wairoa, Thursday. An inquest was held at Mohaka yesterday, into the circumstances attending the death of William Balfour, manager of the Loan and Mercantile's property in that district, who was found in a wool shed on Tuesday, at midday shot, dead with a double-barrel gun alongside the body. The evidence went to show that the gun might have been exploded by the trigger striking against) the projecting branches of evergreens with which the shed had been decorated for a dance some time previously. The muzzle of the gun was lying awuy from the body, and the stock towards the bead in such a position that ib could hardly be possible for the deceased to have pulled the trigger with his hand. The top of his head was blown completely off, and a portion of the skull and brains were scattered in various directions. Witnesses deposed that there was nothing in the deceased's manner to convey the impression that he meditated suicide. The jury returned a verdict that deceased was killed by a gunshot wound in the head, but there mi no evidence bo show how he came by it. The remain?] will be brought from Mohaka this afternoon, and interred in the Wairoa Cemetery.