SUPPOSED SUICIDES.

Evening Star, Issue 2954, 7 August 1872, Page 3

SUPPOSED SUICIDES.

Two cases, which have the appearance of self-murder, are reported from Oamaru. In regard to the first, the 'l'imes says that towards the end of last week it was rtnm-rcd that a man of the name m Isaac Davis was missing, he not having been seen near his usual place of business since the Ist instant. Various conjectures were hazarded with respect to the cause of his absence, but on Saturday last these assumed a somewhat definite form from the fact of its becoming known that a man named Moxham had heard, on the evening of Thursday, a splash in the Oamaru Creek, not far from the rear of the Brewery. Under the guidance of Moxham, a parly was taken on Sunday morning to the creeK, and m, npirchin" the place which he indicated as te sdt where he hoard the splash, the body was found. The evidence adduced at the inquest brought out the e facts : Deceased was 44 years of age, resided at Oamaru for some years, and was cousin to Mr Moss, clothier, there. On the 29th ult. Mr Moss left him in charge of his shop while he went to tea. M r S. Newey, whose tenant deceased was, took away two coats from Moss’s store for a joke on Moss, and iid them* Moss seems to have taken his

loss seriously, and getting no information from his neighbors, of whom he enquired thinking at first their removal was a practical joke, reported the circumstance to the police. On the removal of the goods being mentioned to deceased, he said it had been done for the purpose of injuring him ; and became excited in a manner that had not before been noticed. All the witnesses agreed that the removal of the coats troubled the deceased very greatly—to one Mr O’M eagher, the solicitor, he complained that day that “ there was a great deal too much larking going on.” The jury returned an open verdict. The second case was the discovery of the body of a woman in the large lagoon near Kakauni. The deceased, Bridget Faire, was formerly a servant at Mr Fulton’s, Windermere, and was of eccentric disposition. She went to Mr Fulton’s on the afternoon of the 2nd iust., and was told that, on account of her previous strange conduct, orders had been left that she was to leave the next morning. She said friends were coming to take her away on Saturday morning in a spring cart ; and although the people at the station offered to take her away to any place she wished, she refused. She left in the evening, and nothing more was seen of her until about ton o’clock on the Sunday morning, when her body was found in the lagoon.