SHOOTING AFFRAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24838, 11 February 1942, Page 6

SHOOTING AFFRAY

TWO MEN WOUNDED ARGUMENT IN HOTEL ARRESTED <P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 10. Two men were wounded at the Wataroa Hotel, South Westland, at 4.30 •.m. to-day. They were Thomas Walsh, single, aged 31 years, a farmer, residing at Wataroa, and Jack Peterson, single, aged 38 years, a labourer, also of Wataroa. John Morrissey, aged 36, licensee of the Wataroa Hotel, a married man, with four children, surrendered to the police, and was later charged before justices of the peace and remanded. It is alleged that a heated argument and fighting took place in the hotel, '—and Morrissey asserted that Peterson struck- him with, a set of golf clubs. Walsh took Peterson outside, and it is claimed that Morrissey appeared on the veranda with'a gun in his hand. A shot was fired,; and,Peterson-fell. Walsh then felt a shot, and ran to the store 100 yards along the road, jumping through a window into the storekeeper's bedroom. Peterson was lying on the road. Morrissey called a doctor, and then went to Constable Pawsey, informed him of the shooting, and gave himself up. The constable found Peterson on the side of the road, lying oh the grass. Walsh suffered a shotgun wound on the left side of the abdomen, below the rib, and Peterson suffered a shotgun wound through the muscle of the right arm, and a shot pellet wound <>n the right side. •"', •■ ' ■•' ■;.'' Wataroa is a village 80 miles from Hokitika on the Main South road to the Glaciers. Morrissey was charged before justices of the peace at: Wataroa this morning; Both wounded men were taken to HokitikaV Hospital, by air ambulance and arrived at 9 a.m. Blood transfusions were given, and both are expected, to recover. ■.■■■.: ;-,■ Walsh was saved from death by a bundle of papers which he had in his coat pocket.