SUICIDE OF MR FRED. A. WHITAKER.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 207, 18 June 1887, Page 8

SUICIDE OF MR FRED. A. WHITAKER.

Auckland, June 11. Me F. A. Whitaker, former member of Parliament for Waipa, and eldest son of Sir Frederick Whitaker, shot himself in the board room of the Auckland Club at 5.30 last evening. The sad tragedy was discovered almost immediately afterwards, and when the news, was circulated through the medium of a Star Extra a few minutes later a genuine feeling o* regret and pained sui prise was expressed" As the details of the sad tragedy are fully brought out in the report of the inquest ! given below, wo refrain from doing more here than giving a general outline of the circumstances of the tragedy. It appears that at 5.30 last evening, as Charles Chapman, a butcher in the employ of Messrs Hellaby Brothers, was proceeding along a passage in tho club which leads to the kitchen, he heard the report of a pistol shot, and looking through an opening in tho Board room, saw that some one had fired. Having given tho alarm, CJhapman, accompanied by Henry Jones, a waiter, rushed into the room, and found Mr Whitaker in a pool of blood, Avhile blood was also flowing freely from a hole in the head. There was also blood on the table, v. Inch showed that tho deceased had been seated at the table when he fired, and then probably through the spasmodic action of the limbs through the shock, fell to tho iloor. A six-chamb-ered revolver, five chambers of which were loaded and one apparently recently discharged, lay behind him. Dr. Hooper, who was in the club at the time, was summoned by Captain Olive, and found that the unfortunate gentleman was still alive. The bullet hud penetrated tho upper part of the forehead, and passing through the brain, had cracked the bone at the back of the skull, but had not emerged. Dr. Haines was> also speedily in attendance, but of course he was beyond medical skill. His three brothers—Messrs A. E. Whitaker, Harry Whitaker and E. Whitaker - arrived shortly after the &ad occurrence, but the unfortunate gentleman did not recognise them, and expired at 5 minutes past six — 10 minutes after the firing of the shot. The sad intelligence was broken as gently as possible to Sir Frederick Whitaker, and though he bore the announcement with fortitude, it is feared that the occurrence will prove a terrible blow to him. Great sympathy is felt for the deceased's widow and tin ee young childi en. The cause of the commission of the rash act is believed to be pecuniary difficulties, over which he had brooded considerably of late. Some of those who had come in contact with him lately — amongst them Mr Graves Aickin - noticed that he was a little erratic in his conversation, and giwo evidences of a perturbed mental condition. There was nothing, however, to arouse a fear that he had lost his mental balance. He had been in town for about a month, and had frequented both the Northern and the Auckland Clubs, but had not given way to drink in the slightest degree. Poor Whitaker was a fine, manly man, of healthy tastes and lofty aspiration-., and about the xa&t person in the world that one would imagine would take his own life. He was intensely popular amongst his compeers, and though naturally of a jovial disposition, he was a deep thinker on recondite subjects, and was not unfroquently given to theological discussion. He was a remarkably well read man, and was a very able logician. It is related of him that while a law student at the Temple he became very much interested in the Salvation Army, then a new movement, became intimate with General Booth, and frequently marched in their relierious processions. He was Sir Frederick's eldest son, and was born at Pernambuco, t South America, in 1847, while his parents were on a trip from this colony to England. He returned to New Zealand as a child, but at the age of nine was sent to the Old Country to be educated, and after passing through a scholastic course at Marlborough and Westminster Schools, commenced to fefcudy for tho legal profession, and was called to the bar of the Inner Temple before he was 21. Returning to New Zealand, he practised his profession here — first at the Thames in partnership with Mr J. E Macdonald, now Chief Judga of the Native Lands Court, afterwards at Coromandel, and in 1874 at Waikato, with which district his interests have been bound up ever since. He became very largely interested in speculations in native land, and was also the owner of the " Waikato Times," one of the most flourishing country newspapers in the colony. In IS7B he contested the Waipa in Parliament, but was defeated by Mr E. G. McMinn. At the next general election he was elected, and sat for several years. lie was a keen politician, and though not by any means eloquent, was well up in Parliamentary tactics, and was invaluable as whip to the Government of which his father was the head. The deceased gentleman was married to a daughter of Mr Alfred Cox, and is mourned by her and three children.