END OF MENTAL TETHER

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 37, 13 February 1930, Page 7

END OF MENTAL TETHER

WOMAN ATTEMPTS SUICIDE DBUNKEN HUSBAND BLAMEp (by Telegraph.—Press Association.) PALMEESTON N., This Day. A story with elements of the tragic was unfolded ' in the Magistrate's Court when a young married woman was charged with attempted suicide. "More sinned against than sinning, was the description applied to the accused by the Senior' Sergeant, and the evidence bore out the assertion. "This woman has been worried, and knocked about by her husband, until she has about reached the end of her mental tether," said Senior Sergeant Whiteiiouse. "On Tuesday night her husband was in such a drunken state that he was locked up. He threw his wife and children out of their home, and when the woman in her distress said that she would end it all in the river he replied that that was the best thing she could do. A man says that ho stopped the accused throwing her baby into the river, but it appears that she collapsed on the bank and the baby rolled in. The woman is not so much to blame as the husband who has spoiled her life.'' Further details of the case were supplied by the accused's solicitor, Mr. A. J. M'Leavey, who stated that the husband was in receipt of a salary of £300 per "year and spent practically the whole in drink. The family was in destitute circumstances. Only yesterday all their furniture had been sold up and they were in debt everywhere. The husband had been on leave from employment for some weeks, and had spent'the whole time soaking in drink. The woman had just come out of the hospital, where she had been under the doctor's care with nervous prostration. An argument had developed after tea at their house, ,aud the unfortunate woman had said that the only way out was for her to throw herself into the river. The husband had replied: "The best b— tiling you can do is to throw yourself in." The unfortunate woman had taken her small children and had wheeled them in a push-cart down Ferguson street to the river. However, she stated that she had had no intention in. the world of carrying out her throat. Her people were willing to give her a home, and she proposed to obtain a separation from her husband, although she considered that if ho was living in a no-licence district he might even yet have a chance. Counsel asked the Magistrate to be lcuicnt with his client. She had undergone a great deal, and there was no doubt that she was at the end of her mental tether. She had three small children, two girls, aged 7 and 9 years, and a baby, aged 4 years and I 11 months. "If her people will take her I will convict and discharge her," said the Magistrate. An order was made for the suppression of the woman's name. Her husband was then placed in the dock and charged with being found helplessly drunk in Ferguson street. On the application of the poltco he was remanded, for a week in order that he might be placed under observation.