ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 February 1929, Page 2

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE

WOMAN USES TABLE KNIFE •“She apparently found that life was becoming unbearable on the farm, and thought the best way was to get out of it,” said Sergeant C. J. King, of Hokitika, at the Greymouth Court this morning, when a married woman, Alice Jane Norcross Dunn, was charged with attempting to commit suicide at Ho Ho yesterday. Accused, who was not represented by counsel, pleaded guilty, and elected to be dealt with summarily by Mr. W. Meldrum, S.M. Sergeant King stated that the woman resided with her husband and two young children on a farm at Ho Ho, just outside Hokitika. There had been domestic disagreement, which had been going on for several months. “There is not much give and take between the. two,” he continued. “They quarrel and she comes to Hokitika, and he has to come and take her back again. She has haunted the Hokitika Police Station lately. I am trying to work a reconciliation between them. She apparently found that life was becoming unbearable on the farm, and thought the best way was to get out of it. She tried to do the deed with a table knife, but it was rather a crude instrument, and was not very sharp. She went into the sitting room yesterday morning and used the knife. The screams of the children attracted the attention of a young man who was passing in a motor car. The cut was low down, and she had to get through a- considerable amount of flesh before she could do much damage. It was only a scratch, and she suffered no ill effects. She is forty-three years of age. Her husband is in Court, and he might be able to enlighten the Court as to the cause of the affair. It might be a lesson to her, and she may realise that it is not so easy as it looks.” The Sergeant added that one of the children is going to school, and the other is about three years old.

“It is not a case for punishment,” decided the S.M., “and I do not propose to inflict any. I would like to advise her husband and herself that, for the sake of the children, they should try and sink their personal differences, and carry on as they ought to do. She is convicted and discharged.”