AN UNHAPPY END.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume XXIV, Issue 2087, 15 September 1896, Page 2

AN UNHAPPY END.

Charles Hillary Parker, a commission agent n ahd bailiff,.? who has , v b«en \ji I Ghristchurch for a great number of years and was once a resident of the Penlnsala, wtß found dead on Friday morning, having, it is supposed, died from the effects or poison administrated by himself. He occupied an office in a building in Hereford street near the Hereford Hotel, and had an assistant n man named Charles Bennett. When the assistant reached the office about 8.15 am. he was starled at seeing the body of his employer fully dressed lying face downwards on the floor. Bennett at once gate tbe alarm, and Mr A, Reynolds, hairdresser, who occupies a shop close by, and was the first spoken to, rang up the police and Dr. Byrnes. Sergeant Briggs and Dr. Symes arrived quickly and made a close examination of Parker and the office. Parkor was then dead, though tbe body was warm, and it did not present the appearance of a man wbo had taken poison, but from a letter found on the deceased it is surmised that suicide was contemplated. The search of the office revealed no traces of poison, but a portion of an orange was discovered, and it is presumed that whatever was administrated was taken with the orange. The letter was on a slip of yellow paper, on which the writing was in pencil. It was addressed to deceased's wife, and wished her good-bye, stating that " this is the best and only thing for me—-I am mad. Kisrthe*children for me," and was signed "■Hillary) ,, Financial troubles is supposed, to be the cause which led to Parker's death, At the inquest held on Saturday the jury returned the following verdict:—That it was unnecessary to hear the evidence proposed to be led, and, without retiring, returned a verdict 'That deceased, while in a state of unsound mind, administered strychnine, from the effects of which he died. .