SUICIDE AT LYTTELTON.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13905, 2 December 1910, Page 5

SUICIDE AT LYTTELTON.

« OLD MAN HANGS HIMSELF. An old man named John Thomas Gardner committed suicide by hanging himself at Lyttelton yesterday morning. Gardner, who was an old age pensioner, about 70 years of age, was wellknown in Lyttelton, where he worked as a carpenter. He lived by himself in a little cottage in London street. When the milk boy called yesterday morning, he received no answer, and on opening the door was startled by seeing tho body of tho old man hanging by a rope. He rushed away and informed the police. Constables Richardson and Doak went and cut the body down. The old man probably had been dead some time, a.s the body was quite cold. Gardner was blind in one eye, and he had been troubled for some Lime by the failing sight of the other. About a month ago he went to tho hospital for treatment. For a few days he was quite blind, but he recovered tho sight of the one eye. It is considered that the fear of becoming totally blind had preyed upon his mind. The old man had gone* about the affair in a very determined manner. By standing on a chair placed on his bed, he had torn away the scrim and paper in the ceiling, an d ha( j fastened the rope to one of the rafters, and, after securing the other end round his neck, had stepped off the chair. Tiie body was removed to the morgue, and an inquest will be held this morning.