ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

Southland Times, Issue 20585, 8 September 1928, Page 8

ACCIDENTS & FATALITIES

INQUEST INTO BOY’S DEATH. (Per United Press Association.) Auckland, September 7. A verdict of accidental death was returned at the inquest into the death of the little boy, James Bruce Gamer, who was accidentally shot at his parent’s home at Ponsonby yesterday. The mother of deceased said she left him playing with his two other brothers Jack and George and his uncle Brian McCormack, aged 10. She heard a scream and rushing back to the bedroom, found deceased on the floor fatally wounded. Brian McCormack said that Bruce got hold of the pea rifle, picked it up and said, “I am going to make it go click.” Witness then picked up a shot gun which was also tn the room and said, “My word, this is hard to pull back. I then let the hammer go,” continued witness, “and the gun went off. I did not load it.” “People should be particularly careful “to keep firearms out of the reach of children. I have had many inquests through guns being left carelessly about,” said the Magistrate (Mr Hunt) at the conclusion of the evidence. BODY FOUND IN HARBOUR. Christchurch, September 7. The body of a man was picked up in the Lyttelton harbour at 2.45 this afternoon. It was first noticed lying across one of the beams on the east side of the ferry wharf by a member of the crew of the tug Lyttelton. It had apparently been in the water for some days and was that of a man between 35 and 40 years of age. The police description of the body, which has not been identified, is that of a strongly built man, well-nourished, about 5 feet 9 inches in height, face full and clean shaven and hair dark although the head may have been partly bald. It has part of an upper set of artificial teeth with a tooth missing. The body was fully ■ clothed except for a hat, but there was no clue to identification.