LOVED HER PETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 201, 25 August 1937, Page 11

LOVED HER PETS.

CATS ONLY FRIENDS. OLD WOMAN'S SUICIDE. TRAGIC STORY AT INQUEST. Worry over having to leave the /old building which had long been her home and thus lose the companionship of a number of cats she had gathered about her as pet?, was considered by a social worker well acquainted with her to have been the reason why Agnes Inkster, a spinster, aged 70 years, committed suicide at a house in Somerset Place yesterday morning. At the inquest ; before Mr. F. K. Hunt this morning testimony was,given that the old' woman was found dead on the floor of the- house in which she lived alone. She had in her mouth a tube which was connected with the gas meter. She was a native of the Shetland Islands; and was notr known to have any relatives in New Zealand. A social worker who had frequently, paid visits to the house said that early in the month Miss Inkster had received notice from the local authority that the •house in which she lived was to be demolished. She had a large number of cats as her pets and only companions, and was greatly worried about what would become of them when she shifted to other quarters. She was an old age pensioner. After having obtained medical testimony, the coroner found that the cause of death was suicide by gas poisoning.