DOCTOR'S DEATH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 26, 1 February 1937, Page 7

DOCTOR'S DEATH.

SUICIDE DRAMA.

Australian Medical Man's

Brain Storm.

SCENE IN BOARDINGHOUSE.

(Received 9.30 a.m.)

LONDON*, January 31

"I believe he had a sudden brain storm," said the coroner, in returning a verdict of suicide while insane in the case of an Australian doctor, Percival John George Payne, aged 40, who killed himself in a boardinghouse at Leicester.

A friend, Dr. Charles Wilkie, gave evidence that Dr. Payne sold a largo practice at Leicester and returned to Australia. He was disappointed at the prospects there and returned to England, but failed to secure another practice. He became depressed, saying that life was not worth living. A mental specialist advised him to enter a home and undergo nerve treatment, but Dr. Payne and his wife asked witness not to act, as they feared he might be certified as insane.

The proprietor of the boardinghouse said he had found Dr. Payne and his wife struggling. They calmed down. Dr. Payne then summoned Dr. Wilkie, who was attempting to administer a sedative when' Dr. Payne snatched a razor from a trunk and cut his throat twice, in spite of Dr. Wilkie struggling to obtain possession of the razor.

BREARLEY PASSES.

FORMER TEST EXPRESS

(Received 11.30 a.m.)

LONDON*, January 31

The death is announced of Walter Brearley, the former * Lancashire fast bowler, at the age of 61.

He played in two Tests against the 1905 Australian eleven, and one when M. A. Noble's team recovered the Ashes in 1909. He also played against South Africa in one Test of the 1912 triangular tournament.

FOR FRENCH RAILWAYS.

BIG LOAN FROM BRITAIN.

LONDON, January SI

A -syndicate of London bankers has undertaken to lend the French railways £40,000,000 at 3J per cent, repayable in ten months, for the purpose of assisting the French Treasury to finance railway deficits and of strengthening the French exchange stabilisation fund.