AN OLD IDENTITY.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9941, 21 January 1898, Page 3

AN OLD IDENTITY.

Au was held . * Asylum yesterday, before »ls|r-R. Beethart, •■ S.M., Coroner, aftd a'joiy,. ; on,the body of . £ Edward Perry,, aged '>&&&.: eighty, years, anda a verdict • was returned that death ~ " resulted from senile decay><-;. fi ?- The above short notice.atones the record of an existence wnieh, ; f6rh|be" greater part of it ..was *£e_ 'if •> 'sad .- - and " monotonous; "' Very early,- in-' the * history of" this the detfiprwd had \ .. been in the employment of 'Mr' "Rhodes as \». - shepherd at the Levels, near Timsjru.' Of , I his ri earlier... life or his relativeflrrtfJie bad - j any-soothing ia known* but iri 18j$?..He*aet j out from the place, of his employment to ' | walk to Lyttelton, which place be reached \ after ten having, so' far as | could be gathered from, him, ' '- from drowning in the rivers by-- the way. It must be remembered that % time of. his journey, there were few atojmnu .- „. places for travellers, and'no bn<|ges» I qr punts. He lost the ■ swag and provisions . '- j he carried and must' have suffered great J hardships,- for he was found, af ten he .arrived j at' his destination, by, r Mr Seager, then 1 > in charge of the'police at'Lyttelton, lying J on the 'beach, on the verge of-'death,• and f j wasted by starvation almost, to a SKele* "|l ton. Mr Sesger relates that'he actually -•* ■ | picked him up and carried hhntotbesnro >_ ] nospital en Norwich Quay; whereas .*,. /" I aonte time life and deailb'. v 'As he \ * j regained bodily health the- delirium V" I: which he ' had shown from '. the first > - lapsed' into, confirmed mania, '\*nd ■» op • 'the warrant ot Dr. Donald _c was removed •' from the hospital to - the- then only .place v for the,insane—the There-here- V mained uotil 1888; whett the*Urat braidings f -\\ at Sunnyside were ready, and be was" taken there with nine, others.- by/MrSftager, who had been appointed to "take charge of the >' institution, and he .'remained, there ever sines, • 'The deceased was the third person - com—itted-in Canterbury 1 for .tyinacy. He was quite harmless, and' is to have been'longer (forty-six years) in' detention than auy dther patient Whose ni—te has gone '.. the books. t *-' ; -' - *-.«-■ *. H .!