MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 253, 13 February 1877, Page 2

MAGISTRATE'S COURT.

THIS DAY. [Before T. W. Parker, Esq., 11.M., and George Suinptcr, Esq., J.P.] ATTEMPTED .SL'ICIIJE. Robert Whytnicyer, against whom live convictionsl\»r drunkenness were recorded, all within the past two months, was charged with attempting to commit suicide, at Weston, on the 12th instant. Prisoner, who is a Frenchman, de nied the charge, and said he was not sucn a fool as to do any " such ting." Ooorgc Brown, deposed : I am landlord of the Weston Hotel, Weston. I know the accused, Robert Whytmeyer, who crime out to my house on Friday last, and : remained there until last night. About ten o'clock he left the bar, and went into the front of the house. About Gve or ten minutes after that I saw him hanging with a strap round his neck, which was formed in a loop and attached to the ring in the verandah-post, about four feet from the ground. Prisoner was lying upon the ground, pulling against the strap, and gasping. The strap was very tight, I took him in my arms and lifced him, while I cried out for assistance, and a man named George Taylor came and cut the strap with a knife. I said to prisoner,

" What did you do that for ?" and he replied, "I am tired of my life; it is only a misery to me. I have been looking for work and cannot get it-." He then went into the house, and I asked Taylor to watch him. Prisoner then left the house and went into a stable, and shortly I went there and saw him with a rope in his hand. Taylor took the rope out of his hands, and I brought prisoner into the house, and kept him there until Sergeant Carroll took him in charge. Prisoner was not drunk when he made the attempt on his life. He met me in town and told me he had no money and could not get work, and asked if lie could come out and stop at my place. I told him he could do so, and I was trying to get him work. To prisoner : I promised, if you would go harvesting, to give you a job when you had finished.

The Magistrate, after examining the strap with which prisoner tried to hang himself, said that, in his opinion, he would have to try a long time before he would enjoy the comfort of putting himself out of the world with the means produced and in the manner described.

George Taylor deposed : I reside at the Weston Hotel, and was there last night about ten o'clock. I heard cries for help; from the landlord, George Brown, and went out to the verandah, which is in front of the house. I there saw the prisoner lying on the ground, with Mr. Browne at his back, lifting liim up. There was a strap in a loop round his neck, formed by the strap going through the buckle. One end of the strap was made fast to a ring in the verandah post. The ring was about four feet from the ground. The prisoner was gasping, and I think he was the worse of liquor. I cut the strap. Accused said "he was tired of his life, and would sooner be rid of it than be in misery." He next went into the hotel, but shortly afterwards went out to the stable, and as Mr. Brown asked me to watch him, I followed him, and saw him with a rope halter in his hand, which I took from him. I asked prisoner " What he was going to do with the rope V' and he said, "I am going to hang myself." He was then taken into the hotel, and afterwards brought into Oamaru. He has been at Weston for some days, and I have repeatedly seen him the worse of liquor. If not quite drunk, he was very near to ic. When he first- came out to Weston he was sober. I think the attempt 011 his life was caused by the state in which he was from liquor.

The Magistrate thought- the whole matter was a burlesque,, and that the prisoner had 110 serious intentions of destroying himself. Had he seriously intended the act he would have gone to the rope halter in the first instance, and the only apparent reason why he did not do so was, that he was afraid to trust himself to that means of carryiug out the joke. However, the danger arose that should he now be released, and get more drink, he might effectually carry out the next attempt. Prisoner would therefore be committed to take liis trial at the next sitting of the District Court, bail to be allowed, one surety in £lO, and the accused in £ls. Accused vehemently protested that the whole affair was a lark, piteously begged of Mr. Brown to become his bondsman, pleading that "never would play no larks no oftencr," but as Mr. Brown did not care to assume the responsibility, prisoner was removed in custody.