ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AT THE NORTH SHORE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7693, 19 July 1886, Page 5

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AT THE NORTH SHORE.

On Saturday morning considerable sensation was created in the marine suburb of Devonport when it became known that Miss Eleanor Price, sister of Mr. Arthur Price, North Shore, had attempted suicide by cutting her throat with a razor. The following are the circumstances so far as they have been ascertained :—Miss Price, who is about 36 years of age, has been living with her brother and family for two months past. Up to coming to reside with her brother at Devonport nothing had been heard by him which would lead him to doubt her sanity. About a fortnight ago, however, ahe complained to him that her brain was affected, and he called in Dr. Parkinson, who treated her for liver complaint. She continued persistently to maintain her brain was affected, though there was nothing in her actions to lead her brother to doubt that she was sane. On Friday she repeated her statement, and proposed that she should be taken to an asylum, but he scouted the idea as absurd. In the evening Miss Price said she was troubled with a corn, and asked her brother for a penknife to cut it, but as he had none he said he would give her an old razor instead. At bedtime she called to him at his bedroom for it, and he handed it out to her, and she took it without remark. On Friday night Mr. Price and his wife occupied the front bedroom, and his Bister one at the back, one of his children two years of age sharing the apartment with her. When he got up in the morning be found his sister had lit the fire. He called her, and received a reply that she was getting up. Half an hour later he again called her, and getting no reply entered. He asked her why she did not arise, and she said, " Oh, Arthur some man has cut my throat." To his inquiry as how she could have done it, she said, " I didn't do it; a big black man did it." Mr. Price took such remedial steps as seemed best, and sent at once for Dr. Parkinson. On his arrival he dressed the wound in the throat, and directed her removal to the Hospital, where she was at once ta&en. Miss Price appears to have haggled at her throat in a most extraordinary manner, but none of the slashings appear to have touched the arteries. The great danger is of inflammation setting in, and she at present remains in a precarious condition.