BILLIARD ROOM TRAGEDY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 16 July 1929, Page 5

BILLIARD ROOM TRAGEDY.

PROPRIETOR FOUND DEAD

RESIDENT OF HAAVERA. Entering a gas-filled billiard saloon in Union Street, Hawera, about eight o’clock last evening, Constable O’Neill and Air H. Hearn discovered the lifeless body of til© proprietor, William Wyatt Matthew Clark, lying fully clothed ou a couch m a curtained alcove. The head and body wa-s shrouded in a billiard table cloth, inside which was the end of a gas tube fastened to a- button hole of deceased’s waistcoat. Gas was still issuing from the tube.

Doctor J. AlcGhie, who was summoned immediately, gave the opinion that life had been extinct for some time. Deceased was a single man, aged 57. So far as is known he had no relatives m the Dominion.; He came to Hawera last October to take over the billiard saloon in Union Street and has sine©’ resided with Air and Airs H. Hearn in High Street. He left the liouse at about 6.30 on Sunday evening appearing then in normal health. As he did not return that night and the saloon remained unopened yesterday, anxiety was felt concerning his safety. Shortly before eight o’clock Air Hearn requested tlie police to investigate with the resu 1 trail t discovery . Air Clark -was a mail of courteous disposition and was popular with all who knew him.