POISON DEATH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21946, 14 February 1946, Page 10

POISON DEATH

AUCKLAND YOUTH SOURCE OF SUPPLY ,P \ i AUCKLAND, Feb. 14. "it" cannot be too definitely stressed (hat one of the objects of the wise one nrotective provisions of the Poisons Act and its regulations is to prevent persons contemplating .self-destruction from obtaining the means to carry out. then intention,” commented the city coroner, Mr. A. Addison, when he concluded an inquest, into the death of a bi-ycar-old sign writer, Allan Waiter Clarke. Evidence was given by a warehouse assistant that the deceased, whom he had known for six months, called on him at the warehouse on January n. He nslted the witness to get him a certain poison. “I knew I could not supply Clarke with this poison,” concluded the witness. "Consequently I could not make out a docket in his name. He appeared m normal spirits and seemed anxious to get the poison and I made out the docket, in' my own name to avoid any difficulty.” “It is quite apparent that this unfortunate vout.li set about to destroy himself,” said Mr Addison. "There is evidence that before obtaining the fatal dose he 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 cdrl friend or was associated with the ofleet of two fails which he is stated to have suffered.” Mr Addison returned a verdict that the deceased died in Auckland Hospital from self-administered poison.