WITHHOLDING EVIDENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 13 February 1933, Page 9

WITHHOLDING EVIDENCE

WITNESSES MEET CRITICISM STRONG .COMMENT BY A CORONER. APPEALS FOR MORE FRANKNESS. INQUEST ON YOUNG MAN’S DEATH. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Invercargill, February 10. Comment upon the attitude of certain witnesses in withholding evidence calculated to shed light on the manner in which William Lawrence Walker, aged 17, met. his death while rabbiting with companions at Northope on January 14, was made by the coroner, Mr. E. C. Levvey, S.M., at the inquest to-day. “It is very unfortunate that this lad ishould be made , the subject of a small and rather pitiful display of restraint by two or three of his companions,” said the coroner. “The Court feels that the whole story has not been told and that what could have been quite simply explained has been withheld from the Court. They haye made themselves morally foolish about it and have chosen to make a mystery of it' all. “My finding is that Walker met his death from the effects of a gunshot wound in his right side, but the evidence is too indefinite to say how or in what manner the gunshot wound was inflicted.” During the hearing of the evidence the coroner appealed for more frankness and told one witness that he was keeping something back. . - ’