Fatal Invention

NZ Truth, Issue 1142, 20 October 1927, Page 5

Fatal Invention

WHEN Edward Lomas made his appearance in the Auckland Police Court on a charge of attempting to take his own life, th* wretched man was in a very unkempt and shaky condition. A constable had discovered him in bed suffering from the effects of gas poisoning. From a gas jet some throe er four feet from the head of the bed — and leading in beneath the bedclothes — was a home-made tube. It was a queer home-made contrivance and resembled a snakeSeveral lengths of newspaper had been wrapped tightly round until, they formed a tube about half an inch in diameter. They had then been threaded down the inside of a knitted necktie, thus forming a tubular contraption about four feet in length. Very appropriately, Lomas had chosen a black tie. It appeared that he had lost a leg at the Dunedin Exhibition and the £800 compensation he had spent on drink. He was now penniless and his wife had been paying his board, although she refused! to live with him. Two years age he was charged with a similar offence. The S.M. decided that Roto Roa Island would be the best place for Lomas.