YOUNG MAN WOUNDED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22833, 14 September 1937, Page 8

YOUNG MAN WOUNDED

DROPPED RIFLE BARREL DISCHARGE OF CARTRIDGE SERIOUS INJURIES CAUSED [by telegraph—owx correspondent] KAITAIA, Monday Serious injuries were received by Mr. Roy Carson, aged about 25, whose parents reside in Auckland, on Sunday morning when a rifle he : was carrying was discharged. Mr. Carson has laeen employed by the Post and Telegraph Department in Kaitaia as a telegraph linesman for the past two years, In company with two other young men, Mr. Carson left Kaitaia in a motor-car for Awaroa, between Herekino and Broadwood, with the intention of shooting rabbits.

When lie stepped out of the car Mr. Carson was carrying a .22 rifle wrapped in his overcoat under his arm, the rifle being in two sections, the stock separate from the barrel. It is presumed that the barrel slipped out of the coat, and the bolt, striking the ground, fired a cartridge that was in the breech. The bullet passed through Mr. Carson's right arm and then through his nose, lodging in the antrum at the base of the brain.

Owing to the victim being unconscious, the exact circumstances of the accident, or how a cartridge came to be in the breech of the rifle, are not known. First-aid was immediately given by Mr. C. Maxwell, the driver of the car, and Mr. Carson was brought to the Kaitaia Hospital, where he now lies in a critical condition.