SUICIDE AT OROUA DOWNS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3922, 23 March 1929, Page 2

SUICIDE AT OROUA DOWNS.

VISITOR TO DISTRICT TAKES STRYCHNINE.

A visitor to ithe Oroua Downs district in the person of George Rickard, Rater and .confectioner, of Wellington, committed suicide at Oroua Downs on Friday morning by taking strychnine poison. Rickard, who was a married man, arrived alt Mr. W. Afoffatt’s place on the 12th inst. on a health recruiting visit after spending a holiday at Rotorua but since his arrival had not enjoyed the best of health. On Friday morning he rose at 6.30 and intimated to Stewart Moffatt, a son of Mr. W. Moffatt, that he was g*oin'g to take a pill. He was absent from the bedroom for setae tilme when Mr. Moffatt found him at the sink in the kitchen with a cup in his hand. He then intimated that he had taken some poison which he had procured the night before from a bottle kept in a hollow tree in the orchard, and produced a piece of rag in which he had carried the strychnine. He said that he Was afraid he was becoming a nuisance and that he had previously intended to drown himself in the Wellington harbour. Rickard was not in pain alt the time and Stewart Moffatt rushed down the orchard to the tree where the poison was kept and discovered that it had been tampered with. On his return to the house deceased asked if they thought the poison would hurt and Was then sitting on the table and showing no signs of distress. An emetic was iunfmediaJtely prepayed and given to deceased and the doctor sumtaoned. Immediately after taking the emetic deceased suffered graet agony and succumbed before the arrival of Dr. Wyllie. A medical examination of deceased showed that death had been caused in the manner indicated and it. was ascertained that he must have taken over a teaspoonful of the poison.

The strychnine was kept sealed nip in a bottle lviddeii in ai hollow in a dead tree in the orchard and was used for poisoning birds. About a week ago deceased asked Stewart Moffatt what the bottle contained and was informed as to its contents. Alt no tilme did he give any indication that he was likely to take hi?, life although he was always very depressed in the mornings on rising.

THE INQUEST. An inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of George Rickard was held at Oroua Downs yesterday afternoon by M l '- A. Fraser, coroner. Evidence .was tendered by Mr. Willialm Moffatt and his son Stewart on the lines above. Dr. E. M. Wyllie tendered evidence as to having viewed the body and gave his opinion that death was flue to strychnine poisoning. Constable Owen gave formal evidence. • The Coroner returned a verdict that deceased met his death by drinking strychnine and water self administered while in a state of mental depression.