SUICIDE AT AUCKLAND.

Pahiatua Star and Eketahuna Advertiser, Volume 1, Issue 53, 10 December 1886, Page 3

SUICIDE AT AUCKLAND.

A voting man named Theodore l-i .u rns, only a few months in the Colony, blew out his brains with a p. -ini in i I'iMtrdingliouse at Auckland u Monday morning. The bullet ( uU'i. i tl.i right temple and passed : n i l, the head, coining out at the It i- tuple. Shortly after breakfast Mr- l ie.'her thought she heard a unis** in deceased's bedroom as if some oi I 1 fallen, accompanied by a slit 1 - il ni'i'd. On MrH Fletcher ren i i ! g this several of the lodgers w* i t t tlie room indicated, and there miw i-iil lying dead on the floor. I'.eliern- he) i revolver ill Ins hand, i is in the position in which he v.. fu ind by tin police. The motive im ni le is not very clear. • el w.is not suffering from p iini.ivy uliarrassinent, as he had inniu v in t!"- bank. His demeanor < t late seemed in no wav strange. Wrh flu arrival of tlie police came Mr .1 i-ks' ii. solicitor. Dr Girdle and Mi l ,oper, a mat frieud and coin))■>in in nf tlie deceased. The police Ife l • body tua las! and searched for ellc-i fiiid'ii;' a large quantity of Wearing apptrtJ and several letters, oik of which was addressed to a Lady Vincent, in France, and another, sealed, addressed to Mr Cooper which was opened him, and contained a kind of will. His prayer book he left to Ins sister, and his llible to his mother. Mr lUv, who came out from England with deceased, saw him the night before. Hi »p)wared all right then, and several friends saw him on Sunday afternoon, when lie was even jolly, and appeared then to have nothing on his mind. The letter laing opened, it was found to contain instructions for the disposal of money left by deceased at tlie bank, some .C!>o, to W divided aiuiuigsl tlirei friends—Messrs Ray, 4 Unde Young, and \V. Ckxiper, and it finished up by •• damning this confounded country." That the sad affair was premeditated there is not the slightest doubt, as everything in bis room shewed that, and the presence of tin sealed letters is also conclusive proof. Deceased was a young man, somewhere between 20 and 80 years of age. and was will connected, having been formerly an officer in the Royal Navy, where he performed some good service on tlie coast of lYru by rescuing a liri’.iah Consul who had been imprisoned by the authorities. At the inquest a verdict of temporary iusamtv was returned.