SUICIDES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9610, 7 September 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

SUICIDES.

On the 20th July an ex-schoolmaster at Northcote, named Thos. Scott, committed suicide by cutting his throat, while suffering from mental depression. He had been ill from dysentery, which had left him physically and mentally prostrate. . Deceased had been suffering from insomnia, and going off his food. Latterly ho lived in a sort of j terror, graving mental forebodings that ! something would happen to him. He lost his employment under the Board of Education through failing to pass his examination, and after trying for other kinds of work fruitlessly, lie lost heart and gave up. At the inquest the jury returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased died from a wound in his throat, self-inflicted, while in a state of nervous excitability. An inquest was held at Mohaka on Aug. 29 into the circumstances attending the death of, William Balfour, manager of the Loan and Mercantile's property in that district, who was found in a wool-shed on August 28 at midday shot dead with a double-barrel gun alongside the body. The evidence went to show that tho gun might have been exploded by the trigger striking against the projecting branches of evergreens with which the shed had been decorated for a dance some time previously. The muzzle of the gun was lying away from the body, and the stock towards the head in such a position that it could hardly be possible for the deceased to have pulled the trigger with his hand. The top of his head was blown completely off, and a portion of-the skull and brains were scattered in various directions. Witnesses deposed that there was nothing in the deceased's manner to convey the impression that he medicated suicide. Tho jury returned a verdict that deceased was killed by a gunshot wound in the head, but there was no evidence to show how he came by it. The remains were brought from Mohaka and interred in the Wairoa Cemetery. William Alexander, a well-known and highly respected resident, at Masterton, hanged himself on Septembers. The cause is not known.