CORONER'S INQUEST.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 870, 3 December 1853, Page 3

CORONER'S INQUEST.

Ay Inquest was held yesterday at the Nag's Head Inn, Te Aro, before Dr. Fitzgerald, Coroner, on the body of Peter Clarke, boatman, , wLo had committed suicide that morning by | shooting himself with a pistol. The following ' witnesses were examined Timote — an aboriginal native — deposed, that between six and seven o'clock in the morning, as he was sitting in his wane in Te Aro Pa, he heard the report of a gun, and on going out •4» see what was the matter, he saw deceased in a sitting posture against the fence of Mr. Rhodes' stockyard, he was dead, and a pistol was close by his" side. Witness informed Mr. Watkin, the Wesleyan Minister, of the circumstance who tdd witness to report it to thepoliceman on duty; witness accordingly informed the policeman andaccompanied him to the spot where the body lay. James Hannah, ' policeman, confirmed the evidence of last witness, whom heaccompanied to Mr. Rhodes' stock-yard where he found the body of Peter Clarke in a sitting posture against the fence facing Te Aro Pa, 'his hands were hanging down by his sides, a'pistol'was in his right hand, he was' quite dead, the ball frond the pistol had passed quite through his head. G. D. Monteith, surgeon, deposed to having examined the body of deceased,*- witness found a gun shot wound immediately, above the right temple entering the skull passing .through the brain and passing out on the opposite side immediately above the left temple ; the bones were .extensively fractured particularly on the left side of the temple, the weund was' quite sufficient to cause dea£h. The Jury returned the following verdict — "That the deceased shot Jjimself through'-the Tieacl tEsftriornmg, December 2nd, 185#p5etween the hours of six and eight a.m,"