Strange Attempt at Suicide.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 354, 27 March 1889, Page 3

Strange Attempt at Suicide.

Bertha Hein,- a young* married woman," was charged before, a /Benbh of^magisfcrates at .Fitzroy 'recently \yitih jafetempbing 'to commit suicide. , Sergeant ©'Heir informed the Bench that the case was'a very peculiar one. T\he defendant was married; to a respectable ,man: , On Tt the 16th mst. she went to 'the Swan t# Hotel, Gertrude-street, and asked for a bedroom. ' She was accommodated, and Miss Naumann, the daughter of the licensee, subsequently went to the defendant's room with a cup of ten. She knocked and received no answer. She then tried the handle of the dbor, and found it was locked. Being suspicious of the woman's silence she peeped under a crevice in the door and thcie saw a pool of blood on the floor. She immediately z*aised an alarm and the liceusee entered the room and found Mrs Hem holding her left thumb over a basin of water. Sergeant Coll was sent for, and he arrested the prisoner. From inquiries that officer made, the defendant admitted that she had shot her nnger. She said that she was tired of her life, and had bought a revolver the night previous for the purpose of shooting hersett. In her endeavour to discharge the I revolver in the direction of her forehead, j the wepaon went off and struck her in the thumb. A search ot the room was made by Sergeant Coll, and he found the' revolver secreted between the bedding. - In another spot he found a box containing 48 cartridges. The woman was then conveyedto the Melbourne Hospital and treated. 'In regard to the case Sergeant O'Hearn further stated that he had made inquiries about the woman's character and had found j that she left New Zealand a few months aj^o for the purpose of visiting her friends in Melbourne. On the voyage she became acquainted with one of the officers of the vessel, and an illicit intimacy sprang up between them, which resulted in the defendant living with this seafaring man. Her hufcband followed her and succeeded in getting her away, but she again returned to her paramour. Mr Hem was now willing to condone the woman's offence and take her back to her-home in New Zealand. The Chairman ot the Bench said that it was a pity that the unfortunate woman should have forgotten herself. He hoped that she would now give up her evil ways," and try and make her home 'Happy. She was then discharged, and left the Court in company of her husband.