BOY COMMITS SUICIDE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24800, 14 February 1946, Page 3

BOY COMMITS SUICIDE

CORONER’S COMMENT ON POISONS ACT (P.A.) AUCKLAND. February 13. “It cannot be too definitely emphasised that one of the objects of the wise and protective provisions of the Poisons Act and its regulations is to prevent persons contemplating self-destruction from obtaining the means to carry out their intention,” commented the City Coroner. Mr A. Addison, when he concluded an inquest into the death of a signwriter, Allan Walter Clarke, aged 16.

v Evidence was given by a warehouse assistant that Clarke, whom he had known for six jmonths, called on him at the warehouse on January 11. He asked the witness to get him a certain poison. ”1 knew I could not supply Clarke with this poison,” said the witness. ’'Consequently, I could not make out a docket in his name. He appeared in normal spirits, and seemed anxious to ret the poison, and I made out a docket in my own name to avoid any difficulty.” "It is quite apparent that this unfortunate youth set about to destroy himself,” said the Coroner. "There is evidence that before obtaining the fatal dose ne had made two unsuccessful attempts to obtain poison. It is possible that the morbid state which prompted his rash act was the result of the breaking off of his relations with a young girl friend, or was associated with the effects of two falls which he is stated to have suffered.” The Coroner returned a verdict that Clarke died in Auckland Hospital from self-administered poison.