VERDICT OF SUICIDE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20869, 31 May 1933, Page 3

VERDICT OF SUICIDE.

POSTAL EMPLOYEE'S DEATH. A verdict that death was due to suicide while in a state of severe nervous strain was returned by the coroner, Mr E. D. Mosley, at the adjourned inquest yesterday into the death of Frank James Matthews, a postal employee, aged 40. Agnes Matthews, of 17 Spence street, said that her husband left home about 10.30 a.m. on December 8, saying that he was going to town. He was to commence duty at the Post Office at 1 p.m. that day. Witness did not know why her husband should go into town no early, but she thought that he had gone to do some business in connexion with the payment of interest on their house. Witness did not see her husband again. His health had not been good for some time, and he was suffering from nerve trouble and had recently had influenza. He had never given any indication of committing suicide. Constable J. Cummings, of Beckenham, gave evidence of finding Matthews's body on May 21 on the Cashmere Hills at a spot known as Redstone Gully. The body was lying at the foot of a cliff, on the top of which part of Matthews'? clothing was found. Arthur Bushby Pearson, pathologist at the Christchurch Public Hospital, said that he had made a superficial examination of Matthews's body. There was a very extensive fracture of the skull which he considered could have been caused by a fall but the state of the body was such that it was impossible to say definitely whether the fracture had occurred before or after death. He could not. discover any other signs of injuries.