BOY WORRIED OVER EXAM.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 December 1929, Page 3

BOY WORRIED OVER EXAM.

CONSULTED 1 DOCTOR PRIOR TO SUICIDE

CHRISTCHUECH TRAGEDY,

CHEISTCHURH, Last Night,

The adjourned inquest on the death of Keith Eennie Miller, aged 17, a pupil of the Christchurch Boys' High School, who was found dead in the school grounds on Saturday morning, was concluded this evening before Mr. E. C. Levvey. Dr. Edwin Douglas Pullon, who was named in a note found on Miller's body, said the boy had called at his rooms the previous night. Miller was in a highly nervous condition, but otherwise his condition was satisfactory. Witness had a half-hour talk with bim and thinking it advisable, he reassured the boy about his studies and left him with a final exhortation not to press his studies. The boy said he had not boon looking forward to coming, in ease the doctor found something serious. The boy had sai'd he wis being comfortably cared for. •

Evidence was given by the police and other witnesses as to the finding of the body with a 22 calibre revolver, with one chamber tired, in the dead boy's hand.

The police, it was stated, had been unable to trace the revolver or to discover how it came into Miller's possession.

The Coroner found that Miller had died from a revolver wound, self-biflict-ed, while suffering from a nervous breakdown.

At the earlier hearing it was stated that death probably took place ou Friday night, as the body, when found, showed that the boy had been- dead for some hours. He was found lying dead at the foot of the Old Boys' Memorial Shrine in the playing field of the school. Clutched in his iiand was a revolver, with one chamber discharged. A message of three words, written on a scrap of paper, was left by the body. All that it said was: "See Dr. Pullon."

The headmaster, Mr. G. Lancaster, said that the boy was of a nervous disposition and had been worrying about his examinations. Last year, he had suffered from an attack of scarlet fever and had been left in a nervous condition. Miller's father, Mr. J. Miller, was Registrar of the Supreme Court at Christchurch until the end of last, year, when he was elevated to the Magisterial Bench.