ACCIDENTAL DEATH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 62, 16 March 1943, Page 4

ACCIDENTAL DEATH

VERDICT AT MARTON INQUEST (0.C.) Marton, March 15. The adjourned Inquest into the death of Noel James Morris was held at the Marton Courthouse to-day before Mr. A. J. B. Sicely, coroner. The only evidence submitted was a written statement by Gregory G. Kelly, senior sergeant attached to the Arms Bureau, Wellington, stating that the weapon was a single-shoe bolt-action rifle, .22 calibre. The bore was fouled with the residue of a recently discharged cartridge. The rifle was in a bad mechanical condition due to wear and faulty adjustment. This condition, it was stated, was so bad that the rifle frequently discharged when the bolt was closed sharply. That it did this only occasionally probably increased its dangerous character. i . The coroner returned a verdict that Morris met his death as a result of a wound from a shotgun accidentally discharged by Tony Roy Barbarich, of Auckland.

The coroner paid a tribute to the work carried out by the police which, he said, was done in a manner that had given ever l ’ satisfaction to the parties concerned.