A Distressing Affair.

Hastings Standard, Volume XII, Issue 4130, 15 April 1909, Page 4

A Distressing Affair.

SUICIDE OF A WELL-KNOWN NAPIER MAN.

Quite a gloom was cast over the town of Hastings last night when the report came through bv telephone that Mr Claud W. Cato had taken his own life by shooting himself. The " Herald " reports the sad affair as follows: " A deplor b!e suicide occurred in Napier yesterday afternoon, when Mr Claud W. Cato shot himself in his office in Browning street. The reasons for the rash act can only be surmised, but it seems to have been committed on a sudden impulse. Shortly before the occurrence Mr Cato was conversing with one of his business associates, and he seemed to be in his usual cheerful mood to all who met him. Mr Cato returned to Napier on Tuesday evening from Ormondville, where he had spent a few days visiting his wife and his 14-year-old daughter. He went to his office the same night, and worked till a late hour. He was again at business yesterday as usual, and gave no indication that he was in any way troubled. In the afternoon a meeting of the Powell Wood Process Company was held at which his attendance was required for a few minutes. About sor 10 minutes after leaving the meeting, he went into the back passage close to the lavatory, secured a revolver which he must have had in readiness, and shot himself in the head. The bullet passed clean through the head from the right to the left side, and* smashed a glass panel of the back doorway. The shot was heard by Mr G. H. Duncan, a clerk employed in Mr Cato's office. Mr Duncan at once rushed from the front office to the back, and saw Mr Cato lying huddled upon the floor, bleeding copiously from the wound in his head. After ringing up for doctors, Mr Duncan ran out of the office to inform the police. Before he had gone far he met Detective Hill, who at once accompanied Mr Duncan back to the deceased's office. The detective found a five-chamber revolver lying alongside the body, with an exploded cartridge in one of the chambers, and on a shelf close at hand he discovered a case of cartridges one short of its complement. The revolver was quite a new one, and is supposed to have been purchased from a lacal ironmongery firm about three weeks ago. Drs T. C. Moore and Mac Donald were soon in attendance, but could do nothing. The borough ambulance van was called into requisition to take Mr Cato, who was still breathing, to the Hospital, but before that institution was reached he died.

The deceased was ore of a wellknown Hawke's Bay family, and was aged 46. He was the first dux of the Napier High School in 1877, and held the same position in each of the two following years. He was formeily in the service of the Colonial Bank and the Bank of New Zealand, after which he entered into the accountancy and insurance agency business with another resident. Mr Cato took a keen interest in cricket and rifle shooting. His library of cricket literature was extremely complete. He leaves a wfdow and one daughter. Avery large number of friends will lament his untimely end.