A QUEER EPISTLE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 62, 20 February 1877, Page 3

A QUEER EPISTLE.

In the course of an inquiry held at Cobden, West Coast, on the Bth ult., into a charge of attempted suicide preferred against one Thomas Heslin, and which resulted in accused being discharged with a caution, the following letter, addressed by accused to the Grey River Argus for publication, was read:— Ist January, 1877. T. Heslin, Brunnerten, in his usual composed aud proper senses, wants to let the populace know the cause of his hatred to this world. ~~ In the first place, my adhesion to this world should be strengthened Tenfold on account of my Family, which, everybody who knows them, pronounces beyond the common. Secondly—l must Justify my Wife so far as to say, in my last Testament, she has been strictly honest with me until after she was a Grandmother. Her deviation from the right path has been caused by an oily snake, in the shape of a man —Joseph Carter—who works now at the Kumara. He persists in his addresses, although he knows it has caused Fammily disturbance for some time. Now, I am going to commit snicide. The very name is abhorent to me; and th 9 thoughts of leaving my children ; 0 1 I cannot commit this to paper.

I hope there is not a man who will call me a fool or a coward for committing such an act; for a fool, those who knows me will decide ; and, fora coward, the act I am about to commit is a stranger to the name. , This paper is written for publication in the Grey River Argus, and I hope the finder will send it there, as I know it will get Justice to the letter. Adieu to earth, adieu to mirth, adieu you fields where I used to run ; Three times adieu, I say to you my life, my soul, Maggie Robertson. Thomas Heslin, Brunnerton.