“Justiflable Suicide.”

Manawatu Herald, 9 February 1904, Page 3

“Justiflable Suicide.”

PATHETIC CASE.

“ If any circumstances justify suicide, these do/' said a Coroner, at Oswaldtwistle (Lancashire) recently, after an enquiry into the death of Jane Beatrice Williamson, aged 14, who drowned herself.

The case was a peculiarly pathetic ©no. In August last the girl having lost her father (a clerk) and mother, and then living with an aunt—went to a cotton mill to learn winding. Pate was against her, however, for her eyesight began to fail, and recently she was dismissed on that account.

The aunt, in giving evidence, stated that at this time the girl had lost the sight of one eye completely, and the other - already defective—was getting worse. The doctors had said that there was no possible chance of her recovering her sight, and this appeared to depress the girl.

Oa Wednesday she went out to buy some lotion with which to bathe her eye, and never returned. The body was found in a mill dam not far from where she lived with her aunt. It was discovered by a watchman who at first thought it was somebody bathing. Upon investigation, however, he saw a shawl on the bank, and then informed the police, and the body was recovered. In summing up the Coroner stated that the circumstances were very sad, and there was no wonder that the girl bad committed suicide. There appeared to be no hope for her ever being able to earn her own living. Her father and mother were dead, and she had no relatives to keep her except where she was to be a drudge.