DEATH BY GAS POISONING

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4448, 6 May 1930, Page 3

DEATH BY GAS POISONING

BODY FOUND IN UNOCCUPIED DWELLING. The escape of gas from an unoccupied dwelling in Avenue Road on Sunday was responsible for the police being communicated with and the discovery of the body of Allan Thomas Harper, a married man, well-known locally. Harper had evidently entered the house for the purpose of ending his life, for he had borrowed a spanner to turn on the gas lap, and when found was tying nil the floor in the passage with his overcoat over his head, which was alongside llie tnrned-on gas pipe, lie had apparently been dead several days. COLONIAL INqfCIKY.

An inquest was held before Mr Ail'. Fraser, Coroner, al llie local Court house yesterday.

John Marlin Harper, sharrmilkcr <Di the Easton Eslate, and brother lit' deceased, gave evidence of identification. Deceased, he said, was •IS years of age, and was married, with three children, including one adopted child. He was a labourer b\ 0.-eupa I ion, and resided in Shannon. Mil ness la si saw his brother alive aboiil a fort night ago, when lie called at wilncss'-plaec. tie was llien in his usual good siale of health. Witness was mil aware of deceased having suffered from any complaint. He was a big, powerful man, and had no worries. Prior to l,akiiig up his residence in Shannon he lived in Foxton, ami had been a resident of the district, lor manv veurs. lie had never threatened to take his life, and witness could not think of anything that would cause him to take his life. Chiirles A. Maclean, gas iiiaiiimer, of Foxton, staled that al 7 p.m. on Sunday lie received word I hat 1 here was 11 leakage of gas in an unoccupied house in Avenue Road. Witness informed Constable Bell of the mallei', and lie accompanied witness ami his assistant lo llie dwelling. The front door was locked, hill llie windows were broken, and on going up to them the smell of gas was easily discernible. A window on the left-hand side leading off the verandah was open, ami witness and the others entered the house through this window. The door leading into the passage was closed, and on opening it what appeared to lie a bundle was seen lying on file floor, li was the body of a man whose head was covered with ;m overcoal. The gas was local e<! leaking from a pipe a few inches from 1 nui ti's lips. The lap on the pipe, which was the leadin from llie main, was three parts on. The man was quite dead when discovered, and apparently had been in such a stale for three days. A screw wrench was lying on the floor near the pipe. 11 would Imve been impossible fora person to turn the tap with his fingers, bill il would have been an easy matter to turn il with llie wrench .found alongside the body. An unusual consumption of gas was noticeable from lasi Tlinrsdav morning' up until the time of the discovery.

John Symnn, blacksmith, depo-cd that lie knew deceased, and last saw him alive on Wednesday afternoon ni about 3 o’clock, at his shop. Deceased asked .witness for lLie loan of n shifting wrench to slacken off the tap of a water tank. Witness loaned him a wrench, which he look awiiy with him, saying that lie would return il in half an hour, lull witness never saw him again. Wiitness never noticed anything peculiar about deceased when he called into tlm shop. Joseph Victor Bell, police eon>1:1 Ide, in evidence corroborated the stalemeiits of the gas manager. Witness recognised the body as lluil of Harper. Tie appeared to have been dead several days. There were no marks of violence on the body. The Coroner returned a verdict that deceased met his death through gas poisoning, self administered.