ALLEGED ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5069, 5 July 1895, Page 3

ALLEGED ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.

ANEXTRAORDINARYLETTER, Benjamin Shoure, the young man who was found in ft precarious stato in Curtis' boardinghouso in Wellington on Monday, was charged bofore tho Stipendiary Magis- j trato on Thursday morning with having attempted to take his lifo by swallowing opintn, The Rev. H. Van Staveren expressed his willingness to liml a passage for tho young man to Sydney and supply him with £2. Sorgt-Majot Ramsay produced tho following letter written by the accused on Holiday, nud handed by him to a fellow lodger:—"! am a native of Russia, and a citizen of the' United States. I thoroughly believed in the Single Tax idea. 1 was onthusiastic about it, Mr Connolly, tho American Consul to ijtjew Zealand, sont a report to jl'lio Government, in which he stated that thcNew Zealand Government stands far ahead of the United States. According to some newspaper editorial items, and ton speech delivered by a representative of the Stato pf Ohio, Tom L, Johnson, I was led to'believe that Now Zealand wits the most desirable place to live in, and there is a scarcity of labourers. Disappointmentfollowed disappointment. Instead of being tho most desirable place and having tho scarcity of labourers in question, 1 found a country with a population hardly seven to the square mile, half of whom don't know where their next meal is going to come from. Tho Government, instead of doing one good thing for the country as adopting the Single Tax idea, Freotrade, and make less laws, and half measures, sometimes Socialistic and quite foolish. I did not liko fighting for my existence any more. I did not think lifo was worth living, after all. Without friends and without money, life is not worth ujiiuch In case the Rewislt community will not bury mo, Het my body go to the Wellington College. I would like my friends ■ and relatives to be kept in ignorance ; about my death."—Tho letter was addressed to the Rev. 11, Van Staveren.

Tlio accused, who is a compositor by trade, was remanded for a week, in order that he might be mentally examined—Post.