SUICIDE AT AUCKLAND.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7611, 7 December 1886, Page 2

SUICIDE AT AUCKLAND.

Auckland, Monday. A young man named Theodore" Behrens shot himself with a revolver this morning at the Harbor View lodging-house. The ljullet entered the right temple and passed through the head, coming out at the left temple. The revolver with which the deed was committed was owned by the deceased, who kept rt large supply of cartridges in his box. He had only been staying at the house for some ten or eleven days past, and during that time nothing very strange was noticed in his behavior. He" always appeared to he a most quiet, . unassuming young man. When the breakfast hour came round this morning, one- of the servants called deceased in the usual way, but received no answer. Very little importance was attached to this, as deceased was a very late riser. Shortly after breakfast Mrs Fletcher thought she heard a noise in deceased's bedroom as if someone had fallen, accompanied by a stifled sound. On Airs Fletcher remarking this several of the lodgers went to the room indicated, and there saw deceased ' lying dead on the floor with the revolver in his hand. The motive for the suicide is not very clear, as the deceased was not suffering from any pecuniary embarrassment, as he had £90 in the bank. • His demeanor of late seemed in noway strange. With the arrival of the police came Mr Jackson (solicitor), Dr Girdler, and Mr Cooper, a great friend and companiou of the deceased. The police in the presence of these lifted the body on to a bed and searched the deceased's effects. They found several letters, one of which was addressed to Lady Vincent, in France, and another, sealed, addressed to Mr Cooper, which was opened by that gentleman and found to contain a kind of will. His prayer-book lie left to his sister, and his Bible to his mother. Mr Ray, who came out with deceased, saw him last night. He appeared all right then, and several friends saw him yesterday afternoon, when he was even jolly, and he appeared then to have nothing on his mind. The letter to Mr Cooper contained instructions for the money left by deceased at the bank, some £90, to be divided amongst his three friends, • Messrs Ray, Claude Young, and W. Cooper, and finished up by "damning this confounded country."-. That the sad affair was premeditated thereis not the slightest doubt, as everything in his room showed that, and the presence of the sealed letter is conclusive proof. Deceased was a young man, somewhere between 20 ' and 30 years of age, and was well connected, having 'been formerly an officer in the Royal Navy, where he performed some good service on the coast ot Peru by rescuing a British Consul who had been imprisoned by the authorities. Deceased came to the colony as a second-class passenger by the steamship liuapehu, but since his arrival in the colony he visited the South Sea Islands. He also went to the Waikoto, where he had been working' for some time forest planting at Rangiriri, and came to town a week ago."