ACCIDENTS, OFFENCES, ETC.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2607, 13 January 1894, Page 4

ACCIDENTS, OFFENCES, ETC.

A man named George King, between 65 and 70 years of age, formerly a carter, and an old resident of Nelson, committed suicide at Nelson on Wednesday night, by hanging himself in his own stable. He was discovered by his wife, who had missed him for about an hour.

A young married woman, Christina Kirkham, wife of Henry P. Kirkham, school teacher, Kaipara Heads, Auckland, was found drowned on Thursday morning on the beach at Devonport. She was last seen alive at 9.30 the previous night in bed. She had complained for some time past of severe pains in the head, and had been low in health. It is feared that she committed suicide while temporarily deranged through illness. The investigation of Dr Lewis shows that the illness ofthe Colvin family, at Auckland is owing to'the persons effected having partaken of rhubarb pie which had been kept in a close safe near the fireplace and had fermented. One of the family, a young man of twenty, is still very ill. The symptoms in each case were violent purging and vomiting. The Permanent Artilleryman was discharged from the Wellington hospital on Wednesday, and was immediately arrested on a charge of attempted suicide. Be was charged at the police court on Thursday morning, with attempted suicide in taking rat poison. The magistrate said the case appeared to him one that he should send to a jury, as the act was not the outcome of drink. The counsel for accused stated that the young man was perfectly satisfied with his position in the force, and suggested that the behaviour was due to sunstroke. The Magistrate remanded Bezar until Tuesday, thepolice not being ready to proceed with the case. The magistrate said it was not a case in which he could release the prisoner upon condition that he came up for sentence when called on, and he also felt obliged to decline because if there was in the first instance sufficient reason for prisoner to attempt to take his life, there was an additional motive in the disgrace which he had since brought upon himself in having to appear in court. In the Otaki child murder case the jury could not agree, and a verdict of four was taken to the effect that the child had lived but that the cause of its death could not be proved. There were marks about the head and arms.

At the Christchurch Resident Magistrate’s court a number of employers were fined for breaches of the Factory Act by employing young persons on Saturday afternoons.

William Burk, licensee of the Lincoln Hotel, North Canterbury, was fined £5 for supplying liquor to a boy under thirteen yews of ago. A boy named Robert Templeton, six years of age, was drowned in the Waimakariri on Wednesday afternoon while fishing. A native named Henry Williams was committed at Mongonui, Auckland, on a charge of cattle stealing. In the Bankruptcy Court, Hawora, Judge Kettle exercised summary powers and commiitted Edward Sach, farmer, on four charges of obtaining credit under false pretences. Bail was allowed, accused iu £SO, and two sureties of £SO each. The death of Mary Aann Hollis, wife of a letter-carrier residing in Buckle street, Wellington, was reported to the police on Thursday. She had been suffering from heart disease, and becoming low spirited on Monday swallowed some matches. On Wednesday she became very ill, and on the doctor being called in she admitted having taken the matches. Emetics were administered, but without result, and the woman died the same night. A man named Toni Roberts, who has lately been employed iu the Globe mine, Reefton, was missed from his lodgings on Thursday moning. His boots and part of hia clothing, were found iu his bedroom, and as he has not been very well lately, it is thought that the reduction in the staff of tho Gobe mine and the poor prospects of tho mine, in which ho was a considerable shareholder, preyed upon his mind. Suicide isfiared.