AN EXCHANGE OF SHOTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1200, 1 March 1895, Page 32

AN EXCHANGE OF SHOTS.

Christchtjrch, February 25. ! .A shooting affair is reported to have taken place at the Port Hills this afternoon, when Mr John W. Otten, who looks after Marley's cottage, about,four miles beyond the Convalescent Home, was wounded by a half-caste Maori boy named Daniel Kelly. The boy had been committed to Burnham from Auckland, and then licensed out to a person at Lincoln. From Lincoln he made his way down to the hills. He is suspected of having broken into the cottage and stolen some articles, and this morning Otten started out to look for the boy. He says his dog started a rabbit, and that he went to try to get a shot at it when he was suddenly confronted by the < Maori boy, who, at a distance of only two yards, fired a shot, wounding Otten on the right side. The latter returned the shot, but is unable to say whether he wounded the boy. A detachment of police has set out for the hills. Otten's face was burned and blackened by the powder, and there is a graze on the top of the head. Later. The police have found the Maori boy very seriously injured. His left jaw is smashed, and the charge of shot has lodged in the mouth and at the base of the brain. He is not expected to live through the night.

A young man named John O'Connell has been seriously injured at a smithy at Napier. He was engaged in welding a tip on a horseshoe, when a sharp piece of steel flew up and lodged in tho biceps of the left arm, severing an artery. The doctors found it necessary to chloroform him and make an incision several inches in length to get at the artery, and prevent the man bleeding to death. As Mr James McColl, second engineer of the s.s. Maori, was working at one of the winches on Saturday, the steam was turned on and the lever struck him a severe blow in the stomach. He was taken to the Hospital, where, considering the serious nature of his injuries, he is making satisfactory progress. A well-known settler at Dalefield, Charles Knutson, was killed on Friday. The Carterton Observer states that deceased and his brother Edward were working in a gravel pit, and had undermined a stump, and deceased was stooping at his work when the stump suddenly fell and struck him on the head, killing him instantaneously. . The stump was not a large one, and the fall was only some five or six feet. The deceased was 34 years of age. Great sympathy is felt for his wife and two children.

A sad accident has occurred at Campbelltown, near Feilding, Randolph Gust, eldest son of Mr Auguste Gust, being buried by a fall of earth. Deceased was loading gravel at a pit some three miles distant from the township when the fall occurred. His younger brother Auguste found the body buried about six inches deep.' The head was smashed to a pulp. Sincere sympathy is felt for Mr Gust and family. On Saturday last Mr Meyers' coach capsized about a mile from Ohingaiti. The cause of the mishap was that the leader shied at a dray carrying a tank. The coach, which was full of passengers, turned completely over. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, though Mr A. Bell got a severe shaking, and a lady passenger sustained some cuts about the head.—Marton Mercury. A young man named Robert Read met with a serious accident at Messrs Waddell, McLeod and Weir's sawmill on Tuesday morning. While he was assisting at a saw-bench, his left hand was in some manner dragged against the revolving circular saw, and three of his fingers were so badly injured that one of them had to be amputated, and the tips of the other two removed. IN"VEBCABGir,i., February 25. The body of John McMullen, a labourer, was found in a lagoon at East Gore yesterday. A verdict of accidental drowning was returned. A man named James Henry Pidgeon i died yesterday somewhat mysteriously. i Deceased had been engaged in mixing a new rabbit poison discovered by F. H. Dansels, who had warned the workmen not to sband too close after he had put in the poisonous ingredient, the nature of which is a secret. Pidgeon took ill and died yesterday. Two other workmen were also bad, but have recovered. It is presumed that the mode of poisoning is through inhalation.