Untitled

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 7, Issue 435, 7 November 1863, Page 3 (Supplement)

Suicide. —An inquest was held on Wednesday, the 4th inst., at Maraekakaho, before James H. Campbell, Esq., R.M., in the unavoidable absence of the Coroner, Dr. Hitchings, on the body of John Benstead, who has been for some j'ears employed as a carpenter iu the neighbourhood of Clive. The circumstances, as narrated by the witnesses, were very painful. The deceased, while suffering under delirium tremens, had cut his throat with a sort of tomahawk or shinglu hammer.—The verdict of the jury was “ that deceased came to his death in consequence of a wound in the neck inflicted by himself while in a state of temporary insanity, the effect of continued habits of intemperance.” Escape from Gaol. —On the afternoon of Monday, the 2nd inst., a prisoner named Wilcox, under sentence of 9 months’ imprisonment for assaulting a man named Washington Day, made his escape from the Gaol. The afternoon’s firing was going on at the time, but the mail coolly walked past and made for the interior. The Sergeant Major of police, not giving him credit for so much effrontery, searched on the Island ; but a turnkoj'’, who made for the Meanee Flats, picked him up at the bridge. It is said that he made his escape through a door which had beeu carelessly left open. The Gaoler was absent at the time ; and we learn that the head turnkey, who was in temporary charge, has, upon the recommendation of the Visiting Magistrates, after au inquiry into the circumstances, been dismissed from his situation.