INQUEST.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 9662, 17 November 1882, Page 3

INQUEST.

♦ The inquest on the. body of George Atkinson, the young man accidentally shot a few days ago, took place yesterday at noon in the dispensing room of the hospital. 0. H. Borlase, Esq., was the coroner, and the jury consisted of . Messrs Thos. Nicholas (who was chosen foreman), Edwin Hodren, S. Neary, W. McGonagle, W. H. Border, J. Key, W. Dewson, T. B. Williams, H. McFadyen, J. Donovan, W. G. Ward, W. Lewis, H. Hunter, E. H. O. Suisted. The jury . having viewed the body, the following evidence was taken. — Alfred Dainty, deposed that he lived up the river, and nas , in the. employment of Mr Williams. On Friday last deceased . came to Mr Wil- : liams's and asked witness to bring his gun and go with him to shoot woodhens in a ; paddock close to the house. Witness ; took his gun, which was loaded, and ; tvent with him. In about half-an-hour ; they returned, without having fired off : the gun. As they were going through . the garden witness had the gun at full- ( cock, deceased being about 10 or 12 • yards in front. The gun must have 1 caught in a gooseberry bush, and it : went off. Witness saw that hs had shot deceased behind. He fell and got up : again, and asked witness to help him , home, which he did. Deceased's home ; was about', 200 yards from where the accident happened. He was able to walk home with witness's assistance. No one else was present when the accident, happened. Witness assisted to bring deceased down to the hospital the same evening. Identified the body as that of George Atkinson. Witness was twenty years of age. He and deceased had often been out shooting together. They had no quarrel when they were out. — Dr Esirle deposed that ho was surgeon to the Wunganui Hospital. De- ; ceased, when admitted to the hospital, was suffering from a gunehot wound in the right buttock, and, mortification having set in, he died at midday on Wednesday. - Witness did not think that the muzzle of the gun could have been more than eight or ten feet from tho body of deceased at tbe time it was discharged, B 8 the contents of the gun went in like a bullet. Witness extracted some pieces of the -trousers and shot pellets and wadding? and attended him -.daily. ; — John Atkinson, a brother of deceased, deposed • that deceased several times stated in the hospital that Dainty shot him accidentally. — The jury, without hesitrtl ion, found "That the deceased, George Atkinson, was killed by a gun accident, discharged accidentally by Alfred Dainty, on the 10th instant."