SUICIDE AT KELBURNE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1892, 29 October 1913, Page 6

SUICIDE AT KELBURNE.

A STRANGE NOTE. A married man named Theodora August Rabe, a, saddler by occupation, aged 46 years, and residing at Springfield Terrace, Kelburne. committed suicide some tisie between 11 o'clock on Monday night.and 6.45 o'clock yesterday tnbrning. Tho affair was reported to th& police at 7'o'clock yesterday morning, and on investigation Detec-tive-Sergeant M'llveney found tlio body of deceased suspended by a thick cord from a rafter in a lavatory. There was a bullet wound in tlie right temple, and a • fivc-ichanibored revolver, with four chambers loaded, clasped in deceased's hand. Deceased, according to his -wife's statement, had not b?«n sleeping well for some weeks past. The previous day he had assisted her in tha housework, and appeared to bo in his usual health nnd spirits when lie retired to bod about 1.1 p.m. When she awoke in tho morning she found her husband missing, but did not take any notice as ho sometimes got up early tb do gardening. She arose later, and not seeing her husband in the garden ■ she went to tho lavatory and found the door securely fastened. She then called her brother, Mr. Laurence Johnson, who forced open the door an.d found Rabe 'as abdve described. The following note was found by the police fastened by a safety-pin to deceased's pyjamas:— , "God has sent me a mfessagfl to prepare the people that tho end of tho world 'is coining. Strike"!.. Rumours r,( wars._ Pestilence. Seel: yet tho Lord while He may vot be found.," From inquiries mado it appears that the deceased was inclined to be sujlerstitious. and of late ho had spoken on more than one occasion of a prophecy that the end of tho world was coming during the present, y'-ar, and that the trend of "events all over th<? world nointcd to -v general disruption. Ho is known to have instanced the present strike as one of tho events pointing to the end of things. Mr. Rabe, who leaves a wife and three children, was connected for many rears with the old Wellington Navals. H" lias been in the emplov of Mr. J. E. Evans, saddler, of Lambton Quay, for over a quarter of a century. An inquest will bo held this morning.