EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2197, 12 August 1889, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE

The faota conneoted with the sulolde of John Miller, who Bhot himself In Oarlyleafcreet, Napier, on Saturday August 3, are of a very singular oharaoter. The Naples "Evening News," glvea the following aooount of the affair : — Miller, who la a labouring man, and who has not hud much work to do lately, was sitting on a chair on his verandah thlo afternoon reading a paper. A lad Darned Eidie os ma round with a gun and » conversitlon took plaoa between him and the deos&sad. The lad wan asked if the gun wan loaded, and ha replied In theaffirmatlve, Miller then said that he had a few tame pigeons he wanted to shoot, and told the lad that they were round In the bsck yard. Woald be go and fetch them? Young Eddie signified his willingness to comply with the request, and left the gnn atanitDg against the verandah rails. As soon aa he was gone the deceased picked up the gun and examined it. A few aeoonds after a report wab heard, and on the. lad cunning round to the front he found Miller hkd ehot hlmaelf and was lying on the verandah m a big puol of blood. Tie deoaaeed'a family, who lived with him, also ran ont, and were shocked at the opeotaole that presented itself, Miller was quite dead. The lad Eddie plckad up the gun and ran home with It to tall hla father of the shocking oooarrencc. A large orowd of people immediately gathered on the footbpith to see the deoeaesd, who waa left lo the position he fell cntil the arrival of the police, who were Bant for, kttet the ooourrence had taken plaoe Dr Innea was Bent for, bat on h<B making an examination of the body ha saw that he oonld do nothing, the ahot hiviog proved fatal. The deoeued 'if on the floor of the verandah, face, downwards, m a big pool of blood, and when OoDßtableaGantley and Strickland arrived m a cab they shifted him into the front room of his ri eichnoe. The affair waa a moat shookiug one. Dsoeased leaves a widow and grown op family.