SUICIDE AT KAKANUI.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 208, 21 February 1873, Page 6

SUICIDE AT KAKANUI.

An inquest was held at the Devon-, shire Hotel, Kakanui, on the Bth.inst., regarding the death of Henry Steel, a labourer aged about 55 years, which took place on the 6th inst. Steel was employed' on the Taipo Hill Station from about the 13th December last to the latter end of January, when he left, receiving his wages, which amounted to about £*7. He remained drinking about the hotels till the 4th inst., 1 when he returned to Taipo and asked for employment, which was given him. The manager noticed that deceased was suffering from the effects of drink. Deceased slept in the same hut with three other men on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The men were awakened on the Thursday morning by his restless manner and wild talking. They noticed that he was much worse. During the afternoon he was at work in the garden, and was seen about three o'clock to go into the hut where he slept and return to the garr den. He was not afterwards seen alive. This was on Thursday, the 6th. On the Afternoon of Saturday, the Bth the manager told one of the men ;that there was a man sleeping under the garden hedge, and upon the man going to look he saw that it was. Steel lying dead. He had blood on his hands, and a razor in his right hand. "Upon the circumstance being reported at the Oamaru Police Station Sergeant Smith went to the spot. He found the body, which had not been moved, lying flat upon the belly, the left arm under the '' head, the right extended outwards and upwards, the left hand over the right, in which latter was an old razor. The : body presented the appearance of a j man sleeping On turning it over,, there was a wound m the throat to be' seen, and blood on the ground beneath. I The doctor who examined the body described the wound as being a slight one, and considered that the man must have been a long time bleeding to death. It is reported that deceased was a married man, that his wife and family reside at Christchurch, and that he had within the last few months been employed at the Kyeburn, as groom to Messrs Cobb and Co. Verdict:— " That the deceased died from a wound caused by himself during a fit of temporary insanity."