ATTEMPTED SUICIDE IN HAWERA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume X, Issue 1840, 28 January 1888, Page 3

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE IN HAWERA.

Excitement was created in Hawera to-day by a determined attempt at suicide, committed by a young man named Astley, a passenger from Wanganui by the morning train. It seems that the police received information by a telegram that Astley was wanted in Wanganui on a charge of obtaining money, some £2 10s, by means of false pretences, and that he was on board the train. Constable Tapp therefore awaited the arrival of the train, and on Astley appearing at once arrested him. Astley offered no resistance but merely said I want to go in here, pointing to the station-urinal. The Constable permitted him to go, and Astley immediately ho had entered the place shot himself. He was taken to the Bailway Hotel, immediately opposite the station, and Drs. Lightbonrne and Chilton were soon in attendance. It was found that ho had endeavored to shoot himself in the heart, the wound being in the left breast, but the ball had entered a little below the base of the heart, and glancing on tho pleura had travelled round the body, lodging in the back, pretty close to the Burface. All that surgical aid could do was at once done, and at the time of writing, the doctors have hopes that the wound may not prove fatal. If he survive the shock, it is the opinion of the medical men that he may recover. Astley is said to be an athlete prettily well-known on the coast.