LOST £20,000.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 21, 26 January 1933, Page 11

LOST £20,000.

GISBORNE SUICIDE.

TIMBERMAN'S TRAGIC STORY. | ACUTE MENTAL DEPRESSION. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) GISBORNE, this day. The tragic story of a man who had quite recently been worth £20j000, but who committed suicide in hospital as the result of financial worries, was told to the coroner, Mr. P. H. Harper, S.M., at an inquest into the circumstances of the death of George Austin McDonald. Counsel for the family explained that McDonald came to the Dominion as a young man and after working at the timber trade in the King Country, acquired his own mill in the Bay of Plenty. He made such a success of his venture that he was able to purchase a large mill at Motuhora, and then five years ago he embarked on an ambitious enterprise at Kakauroa. At this time he had several thousand pounds on fixed deposit, but the Rakauroa undertaking was so extensive that ultimately it taxed his resources, and when timber became unsaleable he was faced with great difficulty.

A few months ago, said counsel, McDonald was compelled to meet his creditors and the whole estate wa« assigned to a committee, which expected to be able to meet all liabilities and then hand the mill back to him. Even now members of the committee were confident that the mill would be restored to the widow and family, but the strain of keeping going had proved too much for deceased, who had entered hospital as a result of a nervous breakdown.

The coroner returned a verdict that McDonald committed suicide while in a state of acute mental depression.