Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1894. SUICIDE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4651, 17 February 1894, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1894. SUICIDE.

has recently had a reputation for 'arijoidps jj) nijiojh Jfye Same way that Wangan|ii.opcdjJp,on a tjme h 4 a PHffle for lunatips. jtn England there pepn an average three suicides per dism, and if alfijosf speipd as if Wellington bad recently raaije up its mii.d to challenge the Imperial record, However, we do not suppose that tho cluster of suicides reported' in the Empire City is likely to be a recurring eyenjj. It is merely on occasional an exception which does not disprove tlie rale of averages. The moot c'jiriojis thing tibonj; it Beem3 to be a propußiit by 'tlie limes io check the epidemic by iegisf lation, Our contemporary, after distinguishing between sane aud insane cases of suicide, as if there nere suoh aijiijig jjtsj jane suioids,, remarks :- Wjthsano .suicide fte is.different, It is absurd to hfl'v.e lawspunfeliuigpjc'nlB by tortii! of impriapnme'nf for" attompjs at sojciije, Tjiaf mejipsfhat {hoyare not for atteinpting K)ioi4 e i but for failing to kill themselves, iheiaw'isthfFefpr'e practically an encouragement to.suicide, Now many ss.no suicides are duo to a very palpable motive—the desire to benefit rein tives. Confiscate the wholo of the property of a sane suicide, nullify his life insurance nolicy, and you will at once stop suicide : from incoming a benefactor of families and a ! defrfrtiger e/ inßuranco companies, Of 1 cpurseV 'aiders and abettors ought to be junished, and toy aio dnder to .Crimmal Code liable '.to" impilsdiydnV' with hwd Jabpu; forlife", Attempted "suicide'ls liable \o years, add'property is'not touched, is wj jjav|b this is virtually A premiuni on Buicide. A change fn the direction we have pointed o.ut,.which,would be returning a long way back'towards the old law, would e/fectually lessen {be number ot suicides of cane people. A man who deserts hjs post in to baftlp pf )ife .cannot be personally reached i but if he kww ftat the property he lews to his nearest and dearest could be reached, hp wppkl ipt desert- '. We wonder at an intelligent journalist suggesting that a widow, or a son or daughter who nay have been plagued iby #.cpnky husband or father for a nsaber jof. yeara ebpiild forfeit oil interest in his jr'op,erty §t (nsiifance policy, because bis mental aVfrafion. went the length of aelf-di'Btroption. We do not believe that legislation oan be made to.either deter or punish puioide. It is one of those distressing phases of human experience which is within the ctomain o£ rJoptors'and of clergymen rather than bT-Jegwlajtorg, A hundred years hence a legislature quel in courage and intolligmoe to dealing with it may be found, but in the present day there is iitlje b;ope of assistance from this quarter. We have ' ourselves seen in this Colony people with aknown propensity towardsmania and suicide, marry and perpetuate in a new generation the fearful failing with

which tbey were afflicted, When' a State is fitted to cope with the broad question of marriages and to piohibit the unfit from,petpeuuting tbeir unfitness, then. SHicide may be proventible A felo dese puts himself beyohd (ho range of human law, and the old English Act which confiscated hi.-i estate lo.the Growu \wstoo severe to be enforced. We do not know whether burying bim at four oross loads in an ignominious manner was a deterrent, probably it frightened wayfarers more than it did the wouldbe suicide- A de se, the man who makes the attempt, is by law a crimiiial, but any idea, of punishing him is ■ usually abandoned by wise Magistrates, Suicide is nominally punished by law, but practically therg is no. penalty, and'it is well that this should be so, for the remedy would intensify (he disease. In timo something may be done to mitigate the unhappy conditions which p.-uuipt men to self ilest'Uc'.ion. As far /.s the Empire City is concern'd, it frequently happens that a crime committed by one person is imitated by others, hut we do not expect that in the present droade Wellington - will exceed ha normal avemge of two or three cases per annum.