SUICIDE AT KAUKAPAKAPA.

Auckland Star, Volume XII, Issue 3553, 28 December 1881, Page 3

SUICIDE AT KAUKAPAKAPA.

A MELANCHOLY case of snicide has occurred nt Kaukapakapa. Joseph Smith, a settler and gunidigger of that place, was last seen alive on the 9th instant, at the polling for Waitemata. On the 22nd instant his body was found in a deserted frhare in the bash at Kaukapakapa, about 500 yards from hi * own house. An inquest was held on the body by Mr A. Bonar, coroner, at the Bridge Hotel, on the 23rd instant. Tho eyidenco shewed that deceased had hung himself by a rope from the roof of the whare, He had evidently taken a wooden case about 18 inches high, and after adjusting tho noose round his neck had jumped off. His feet touched the ground, the rope having stretched with his weight. Tin; body was in an advanced state of decomposition, and the jury after the identification caused the burial to be performed on the spot. At theinquest a verdict of suicide when labouring under temporary insanity caused by melancholy delusions, was returned unanimously. Xieceased was a single man, between 50 and 55 years of age. He had wandered in tho bush oefore, and been found in a state of starvation. Though usually temperate, like many men of similar life, he occasionally indulged in a drunken spree.