RIFLE RANGE FATALITY

Taranaki Daily News, 3 November 1926, Page 11

RIFLE RANGE FATALITY

A TERRITORIAL SHOT ENQUIRY BY MILITARY COURT. COURT-MARTIAL MAY FOLLOW. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Masterton, Last Night. An official military court of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death at Te Ore Orc rifle range on Friday of Private Morris, of Greytown, was concluded to-day. The evidence will be submitted to general headquarters, who will decide whether the case is to go to a court-martial. The court comprised Lieut.-Colonel J. H. Whyte (chairman). Major F. A. Wood, and Captain A. Le G. Campbell. It was stated in evidence that while a team of Territorials were firing in the teams’ match, Non-Commissioned Officer Sage, who was sitting on the ground behind the firing mound, turned round and accidentally placed his hand on a rille (not his own) lying beside him. The weapon, which was loaded, was discharged, and the bullet struck deceased, who was sitting on a slope above Sage. The latter immediately summoned the officer in charge of the firing point and informed him that he (Sage had shot Morris and that he was unaware that the rifle was loaded. Morris expired a few minutes later while first-aid was being rendered. An immediate inspection was made of all the rifles lying in the vicinity of the fatality, but in each case the rifles were empty and a discharged shell could not be found. It was also started in evidence by the officers, non-commissioned officers, and trainees that regulations regarding the inspection of rifles after each squad had fired had been rigidly carried out, that ammunition was supplied to men only when they were ready on the mound, and that all unexpended cartridges had been collected immediately a trainee had fired. Captain Sugden, who was in charge of the musketry meeting, stated that he was satisfied that the officers in charge of the mound where the accident happened were acquainted with the duties of a range officer and would see that they were properly carried out. In respect to the inspection of arms before trainees left a firing point, no evidence was adduced as to how a rifle, lying in what proved to be a dangerous position, came to be loaded. Captain Sinclair, who was in charge of the mound behind which the accident occurred, declared that there was no horseplay on the range anywhere near the scene of the accident. The coroner's inquest will be resumed to-morrow.