SUICIDES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12416, 11 November 1903, Page 3 (Supplement)

SUICIDES.

Timaru, October 28. A sensational suicide was perpetrated at the railway station this evening- As the express from Dunedin passed the platform, slowing up, and going about ten miles an hour, a man deliberately stepped off the platform at the north end of the station building, and lay down just in front of the train. The cowcatcher rolled and cut him in pieces. He was a middle-aged single man named John Howard, a newspaper runner, who came in May last from Sydney, where he had followed the same occupation. He had been drinking, and the loss of his effects by a fire in a boar din gliouse on Sunday preyed on his mind. He has some relatives in Camperdown, Sydney.

Wellington, October 28. George Mudgvvay, an old age pensioner, aged 88, committed suicide at Hutt this morning by hanging. John Wilkie. aged 20, a farm labourer at Tenui, tied his hands and feet and threw himself into the Whareana River, and was drowned. November 1. A young girl, aged IS. named Winifred M. Griffiths, who was employed as a domestic servant at a house in Murphy-street, committed suicide last nigh'; by taking carbolic acid. She had been in a depressed state of mind for the past week. The parents of deceased live in Auckland. Oamarxj, October 31. John Caldwell Macpherson, 60 years of age, employed on the Ardgowan Estate, committed suicide by hanging himself in an outhouse on his farm this morning. He had been in ill-health some time, and it is believed he was mentally weak. He leaves a wife and large family. An inquest was held at Chrislchurch, on Wednesday, the 21st of October, regarding Selina Ashby, who died at the hospital on Tuesday. The medical evidence showed that death resulted from phosphorus poisoning. The jury returned a verdict of suicide while temporarily insane.