SUICIDE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2516, 2 May 1882, Page 3

SUICIDE.

On Sunday evening the police at Kaiapoi were informed that the body of a man named Robert Hudson, who was known about the district aa a laborer, had been found on Mr W. Jones’ farm, near tbe South branch of the Wnimakariri From what could bo gleaned, the deceased was stated to have been staying at Mr Jones’. On Saturday the owner of the place was from home. In the evening, about tea time, the boys called to deceased that tea was ready, and he told them ho would be in presently, but at the same time said goodbye, if they should not see him again. When he did not come in they concluded that, as he had been drinking, he might have gone to the Bridge Hotel. Hudson did not return that evening, and during the afternoon of next day tracks of blood near a fence were noticed, and followed into a denre mass of furze bushes. Some distance in the centre of those was found the body near a ditoh. Sergeant McDonald obtained a trap and had the body removed to the morgue at Eaiapoi, whore, upon examination, a small wound was found in the throat under the right ear, partly hidden by the whisker, and Dr. Ovenden gave his opinion that the carotid artery had been severed. There was a small pen-knife found on deceased’s person, but in the course of removal over very rough ground, fences, and gateways to reach the vehicle, it was lost out of the pockets. Deceased had been known by some persons in the district for about seventeen years. The body had a somewhat emaciated appearance, An inquest was held in the afternoon at Kampoi, before J O Porter. Esq., E.M., and a jury, of which Mr H J Wood was foreman. After viewing the body, the jury heard the evidence. W. Jones, who stated that he left deceased alone and well on Saturday. G. Jones, ]unr., deposed he had called deceased to tea on Saturdav, when deceased got over a fence and went away, saying, “ Good bye, if I dorit see you again ” Ho know deceased had been twice under medical treatment for lunacy. Dr. Ovondon gave evidence of the nature of the wound in the deceased’s throat in the carotid artery, and to there being eleven wounds on one arm, one of which severed .the mam artery, and said they might have been self, inflicted. The jury brought in a verd.ct- “ That deceased died from a self-inflicted wound whilst in an unsound state of mind.