A SAD END.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1921, Page 5

A SAD END.

MAN TAKES HIS LIFE. LIVING TN EXTREME POVERTY. Ashburton, Dec. 28. Suicide under most distressing circumstances took place at Riverside, Ashburton, on December 26. The deceased, Faa McMaster, aged 52 years, was for some time caretaker at the acclimatisation reserve at Hakatere, but since then had lived with his wife and family in extreme poverty. The deceased had, on several occasions, threatened to take his own and Lis wife’s life. A self-inflicted wound, which was done with a razor, above the left elbow, was the cause of death, and a letter to a young son, regarding the disposal of various articles, was written by the deceased on the back of a letter from the editor of the Christchurch. Star complimenting him upon winning second prize in the Star’s competition with a poem entitled “The Bridge of Remembrance.”

The district coroner (Mr. James Cow) conducted an inquest yesterday. The evidence showed that McMaster served for nine months in the European war, and after home service, since his return, was subject to repeated fits of depression. The coroner returned a verdict “That deceased died from a self-in-flicted wound while suffering from bad health and depression.” He added a rider: “That a service man. in his anxiety for the welfare and health of his wife and family, should not have been allowed by his country, which' he had faithfully served, and whose end was, according to the evidence, brought about by bad health, to live and die under conditions of extreme poverty.”