SUICIDE AT MANGA ARE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8305, 11 July 1890, Page 5

SUICIDE AT MANGA ARE.

BY TELEG RAPIt. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Dargayili.e, Thursday. A strange suicide occurred at Manga\v hare on Saturday last. Emma Lena Meurant, aged sixteen, committed suicide by taking a dose of " Rough on Rats." From the evidence given at the inquest it appears that as early as eight a.m. of Saturday last the deceased asked a lad living in the house next door if he had any " Rough on Rats" in the house, to which he replied, " Js'o ; what did you want it for—to poison your self with ' She said " Yes," but immediately said, " No, she was only in fun, and wanted it to poison a rat." At nine a.m. she went to the store, and bought a box of lie poison, and appeared to be in her usual health and spirits, speaking to several on her way back to her mistress's house. It appear* then that she must have taken a dose of the poison, as shortly after wards she came out of her room an I complained to her mistress of feeling ill, and commenced vomiting. She continued to vomit at intervals up to two p.m., her mistress treating her for biliousness, but the girl getting worse, her mother and a doctor were sent for. On the arrival of her mother she suspected the girl must have taken something, but the deceased would not admit having done so, and said she wanted to die. She was in great pain all the time, and began to vomit blood. About four p.m. she admitted to a neighbour that she had taken "rough on rats," but would give no reason, and died in about half-an hour afterwards. She was always considered to be a very intelligent and cheerful girl, but was a great reader of novels and sen-ational tales, and the parents considered that, her mind might have become turned from reading the same. The jury returned a verdict that deceased took a dose of " rough on rats " while in a state of temporary insanity caused byreading sensational literature.