FATAL WOUND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23619, 1 April 1940, Page 10

FATAL WOUND

FALL WITH PEARIFLE AIR FORCE: CANDIDATE YOUNGER BROTHER'S DISCOVERY [j|Y TELEGRAPH —OWN .COURESPONDKNT] , TE AROHA, Sunday Found by his younger brother lying in a shallow drain on Lis father's farm at Wailiou tliis afternoon, suffering from a gunshot wound in the temple, a young man died a few minutes after he had been taken to a doctor's surgery at Te Aroha, eight miles away. He was: — Mr. Jack Pearson Beaver, farmhand, single, aged 23, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Beaver, of Seddon Road, Wailiou. Following his usual Sunday afternoon custom, Mr. Beaver left the house at about 'two o'clock in the afternoon to look over some heifers on the farm, taking with him his dog and a pearific with which to shoot hares in the marshy country near by. When he did not return at half-past three, his younger brother Geoffrey went in search of him, and saw his dog sitting on the bank of a drain about two chains from the cowshed. On making a closer search, Geoffrey found his brother lying unconscious in the drain. Wires from an old fence were concealed in grass below the edge of the drain, and it is considered that Mr. Beaver tripped on these while climbing across, the rifle discharging when he fell. After being carried by his father and brother across several fields, Mr. Beaver was taken to the surgery of Dr. W. R. Lawrence at Te Aroha in a motor-car, but died a few minutes later. Mr. Beaver was a well-known and popular resident of the Wailiou district, where he had lived for 10 years. He was shortly to have been examined for entrance to the Air Force. An inquest will be opened to-morrow.