SUICIDE OF A PUBLICAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7863, 4 February 1887, Page 5

SUICIDE OF A PUBLICAN

[by TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Invercaroill, Thursday. This morning, between five and six o'clock, Clark Robinson Martin, licensee of the Glencoe Hotel, Forest Hill, shot himself through the head with a revolver in his bedroom. Death was instantaneous. Deceased leaves a widow. Mrs. Martin occupied the same room, but was unconscious of her husband's movements, until awakened by the report of the revolver. It is supposed that deceased took an aim in front of a lookingglass, which he used to direct his haud. Martin had been complaining for some time, and was under various doctors for liver complaint. The police report further states that v he was troubled about financial matters, and had been drinking heavily of late. Martin was formerly manager of the Waihola estate, afterwards a sawmiller at Winton, and more recently a farmer and publican. He was the first man tried by a jury for offence against the present electoral statutes, having been arraigned at Supreme Court, 1882, charged with voting at three separate polling places on one day for the Wallace election, in all cases in his own name. He was acquitted, the jury evidently thinking the act a drunken freak. His sawmill and dwelling ware burnt at different times during the past two years. A few days ago he said to an insurance agent that his life was insured for £500, but he did not know if the policy was still in force.