EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 327, 25 April 1881, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE

A most extraordinary suicide occurred in Tiinaru on Saturday night. The deceased was employed in Messrs Perry and Perry’s offices as engrossing clerk, and was named H. L. Nathan. On Saturday night he was accompanied to his lodging by a friend, at whose house he had been visiting, and during the course of the walk used some rather wild expressions regarding the right of a man to take his own life. No notice, however, was taken of this until yesterday morning, about n o’clock, when his friend called on him, and was told that he was not.yet up, and could not be awakened, and that the door was locked. This aroused his friend’s suspicion, and an entrance being effected by the window of his apartment, he was found lying dead, with his clothes on, covered by a sheet, and a bottle of laudanum in his hand. Near at hand was a letter, stating that he had been unable to obtain a something necessary for his life’s happiness, and therefore decided to put an end to his life. He did not believe in a future state or in a God, and would not blame the jury if they brought in a verdict of insanity, although he was perfectly sane, and that his pulse at the lime of writing was beating 75 to the minute. Deceased was well known in Timaru, but has no relatives in the colony.