CAMP FATALITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22685, 24 March 1937, Page 15

CAMP FATALITY

WRONG HORSE USED SERGEANT'S DEATH STATEMENTS AT INQUEST ANIMAL BECOMES RESTIVE [BY TELEGRAPH—OWN CORRESPONDENT] ROTOKUA, Tuesday Evidence that the deceased had harnessed up a horse which bad not previous! v been employed in a limber waggon given by the adjutant of the camp. Captain C. E. Weir, at the inquest to-day into the death of Shirley Roland Hargreaves. aged 20. of Mount Hobson Road, Remuera, Auckland. The deceased was a farrier. sergeant in the Fourth Field Rattery, and was killed at. the Arawa Park military camp yesterday aftertioon after being thrown from the horse he was riding while earning out training at tlie cimip. In private life he was a clerk. William Allan Morev, a bombadier, stated that,at about p.m. on the day of the fatality he was in the company of deceased, who then had two horses harnessed to a limber waggon. Witness was riding his own horse alongside the limber and noticed that Sergeant Hargreaves was having trouble with his mount. Witness went to the front with the idea of leading the limber horses off. but as. Sergeant Hargreaves' horse was still troublesome he caught it by the head to pacify it. However, the horse would not pull the waggon, so witness went off'to report the fact to Sergeant N icholson. Thrown on to Pole When Sergeant Nicholson and witness were returning to the waggon they saw Sergeant Hargreaves' horse rear tip and throw its rider back toward the waggon. Sergeant Hargreaves fell with one lo< T over the pole. The two horses attached to the waggon then bolted and deceased was carried on the pole for about 20 yards. Witness did not see Sergeant Hargreayes fall off the polo, j but noticed him on the ground bleed- j inn profusely from the head and lying] motionless. Sergeant Nicholson went | to Sergeant Hargreaves' assistance, j while witness followed the runaway j horses and eventually quietened them j some hundreds of yards away. Sergeant Hargreaves had previously said nothing to witness about having'harnessed the wrong horses.

A Good Horseman Senior-Sergeant E. J. Carroll: Did it not occur to you when you decided to ride away 'that you should have released the restive horse so as not to leave Sergeant Hargraves to handle it alone? Witness: Xo. Sergeant Hargrcaves was considered to be quite capable of handling Horses. He was also of higher rank than myself. Charles Whitfield Nicholson, a sergeant in the Fourth Battery, said the deceased was a senior horse driver and ■was regarded as a good horseman. When lie went to Sergeant Hargrcaves' assistance, deceased was bleeding from the head. The horse which Sergeant Hargrcaves had been riding was a departmental one. but witness knew nothing of its usual habits or temper." In his opinion the accident was one which it was impossible to forsee. Adjutant's Instructions Cyril Ettrick Weir, adjutant of the First Field Battalion, with the rank of captain, said that he was adjutant at the camp. On the morning of the fatality, in the presence of two other officers, he had indicated to Sergeant Hargrcaves the two horses which he was later to harness to the limber waggon. Witness was not in camp at the time of the accident, but later he found that the hprse which Sergeant Hargreaves had ridden was not the one which witness had earlier instructed him to ride The horse was usually docile, but had not previously been used in the pole and owing to its age it could be expected to become restive if it was placed in work to which it was not accustomed. Entry in Notebook In the opinion of witness the fact that the wrong horse was employed largely contributed to the fatality. It was difficult to understand why the wrong horse had been taken by Sergeant Hargrcaves, as in the morning the two horses which he should have used were clearly pointed out to him and the deceased had entered his instructions.in a notebook. Dr. W. S. Wallis, of Rotorun, said the victim's injuries, which consisted of a fracture at the base of the skull, were consistent with deceased having been run over or kicked by a horse. The coroner returned a verdict that deceased died from a fractured skull caused through falling from a restive horse and being "kicked or falling under the wheel of a moving waggon.