ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AT HELENSVILLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9182, 11 October 1888, Page 5

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AT HELENSVILLE.

THE CLERK OF THE COURT SHOOTS

HIMSELF. About a quarter to three o'clock yesterday afternoon, Mr. George Herbert Ludlow, Clerk of the Court at Helensville, attempted suicide by shooting himself with a Colt's revolver, on the public highway, near Ruatawhera, a short distance from Helensville. The following are the circumstances, so far as they can be gathered : Mr. Clendon, R.M., on arriving at the Courthouse shortly after two o'clock, found it locked, and he informed Constable Foreman, in charge of the Helensville policestation, who had just arrived by train at Helensville from special duty, of the circumstance. The constable got the keys, and at once opened the Court-house, when Mr. Ciendon found a letter enclosed in an envelope addressed to him, which ran as follows :— I am in a muddle and nearly crazy with anxiety, so I am just off towards Ruatawhera to shoot myself. Break it to my wife. —G. H. L.—Wednesday. Mr. Clendon at once informed Constable Foreman of the contents of the note, and urged him to at once take prompt steps to prevent, if possible, Mr. Ludlow from carrying out his intention. Constable Foreman seized the first horse he could find, and galloped off down the road towards Ruatawhera. On the road he saw some women, and pulled up and inquired if they had seen anyone pass along in the direction of Ruatawhera. They replied that Mr. Ludlow had just gone up the bush track, so he pushed on to the spot indicated, when he found the unfortunate man lying in the roadway covered with blood, and holding a single-barrelled Colt's revolver in his right hand. An examination of the wounded man showed that the bullet had entered the loft breast near the nipple, breaking one of the ribs, and passing round underneath the skin had finally lodged underneath the shoulder-blade. Constable Foreman left the man in charge of some gumdiggers who were close by, and rode back to the railway station, where he procured a stretcher, and took it back to the scene of the tragedy. Willing hands bore the man to the railway station, where, there being no medical man in the settlement his wounds were dressed temporarily by the constable. They were just in time to catch the train for Auckland, and Constable Foreman and Mr. Ciendon, R.M., came on to town with Ludlow. The constable had previously telegraphed to the Auckland police authorities to arrange to meet them .at Newmarket station with a trap, in order to convey the wounded man to the District Hospital. This was duly done, and on Ludlow's admission to the hospital, Dr. Bond, the surgeon for the week, was in readiness to attend to the case. Ludlow, after examination of his injuries, was placed under chloroform, and the bullet successfully extracted. He remains in a precarious condition, but it is just possible he may pull through. Mr. Ludlow had been clerk of the Court for three years, and had little other employment save that, and of late had been rather despondent. He lias no family. Mr. Ludlow was well known in the Northern Wairoa, having been for a number of years clerk and book-keeper at the Aratapu mills of the Union Sash and Door Company.