The, Late Mr Charles Pharazyn.

Manawatu Herald, 25 April 1903, Page 2

The, Late Mr Charles Pharazyn.

The London correspondent of the Times gives full particulars of the inquiry into thedeath’ 'of the late Mr 0. Pharazyn, in which the verdict was that the deceased had committed suicide.

h Mr George Beetham said that he had been able to identify the body in the mortuary by the face. He had known Mr Charles Pharazyn for forty years, deceased beia£- in his sixty-fifth year; he was a retired aheepfarmer from New Zealand, and had. recently been living at 53, Harrington Gardens, Kensington. Witness last saw him on the morning of Friday, .'2oth, February, at that address. Mr Pharazyn was then very much" ’ depressed, but seemed better by the time witness left him, In answer to questions by, the Coroner as to whether witness knew of any cause why deceased should have committed suicide, Mr Beetham replied that Mr Pharazyn had been a successful man all his life, but ;that recently some of hia speculations had net been satisfactory, and at the same time, he was suffering from reaction after a serioua operation ; that the deceased , had never threatened to take his own life so far as witness knew, and witness never thought ho would do so, but since the 20th February he had heard that deceased had .said that he would commit .suicide if it Were not for the sake of*hil wife'and children. Early on the morning of Saturday, the 21st Tebruary, witness was summoned to 53, . Harrington Gardens, by Mrs Pharazyn. That -morning she had found* deceased’s latch key and other keys placed on the outside Of his desk. She opened it'and found his watch, sleeve-links, money and other contents of his pockets there and a letter which witness produced,-and identified as being in the handwriting of deceased. It ran thus i—• “Friday, nine p.m.—-The fit I have* so dreaded has come on me, and I must wander till ray head clears, I know not where I go or when I shall return. It is useless to think or reason I must simply go I cannot ask forgiveness; only forget me.—C P.”

The next witness waa the widow. She last saw her husband at half past eight on Friday, the 20th February; noticed he was very, depressed. Witness then had to go out. She came back at half past ten and found her husband had gone out. He had threatened to take his life at the beginning of the week; he was very depressed indeed, and he worried oyer money matters.’ Witness had been to see her husband’s doctor about him on the morning of the 20th February, but it had not occurred to her to consult him about Mr Pharazyn’s mentalcondition.

The constable who took charge of the body as soon .as it was found produced several brass brackets which were found in the pockets of the, clothes on the body and had evidently been used as weights; and a cord which was loosely round the neck had apparently had gome weight tied to it, which had slipped. Medical evidence wa'k given by Dr Kempster, divisional surgeon of police. The body had apparently been in the water for a three weeks. All the usuabsigns of drowning were on the' body Deceased had evidently suffered from chronic Bright’s „ disease, which tended to produce melancholia, in fact many persons suffering from that disease committed : suicide. From a mark on the back of the neck he would say that the cord looped round it had carried a weight The appearance were all strongly suggestive to suicide. Mr Beetham, recalled, said that deceased had had two large,* heavy and sharp-edged sample bricks in his room, lately, and one of thorn had disappeared. The edge would be sharp enough to chafe through a cord The brackets were similar ta others in the hquse,. * '