TRAGIC DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21640, 4 November 1933, Page 14

TRAGIC DEATH

JUMP FROM BUILDING

MARRIED MAN'S FATE

EVIDENCE AT THE INQUEST

An inquest concerning the death of Eric Reginald Smith, aged 33, of 54 Wheturangi Road, One 'lree Hill, who died on Thursday following a drop from the top floor of the Strand Arcade, was held before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., coroner, yesterday. The father of deceased, Frederick Lewin Smith, said he last saw his son alive at 9.22 p.m. on Wednesday. Deceased then appeared to be a bit worried, principally about his health. He had no financial worries. He was suffering from pleurisy and did not seem to recover, and recently he had been receiving medical attention.

"During the past month deceased was in a very nervous state," continued witness, "and had delusions that the murdered taxi-driver was very like him and that the murderer intended to murder deceased and not the taxi-driver. That preyed on his mind. He was also under the impression that persons were following him to do him an injury."

Witness added that deceased had been staying with him. On "Wednesday night he wanted to return to his home, and as he appeared to be better witness let him go. Abcrut two years ago he was involved in a motor accident at Thames, receiving head injuries.

Duncan McCallum Clark, liftman in the Strand Arcade, said that about 8.35 a.m. on Thursday he saw deceased oil the top floor of the arcade building. He did not come up in the lift, and when witness spoke to him he stated ho had an appointment at 9 a.m. Ho spoke quite rationally and did not seem agitated. Later witness took him from the third floor to the ground floor in the lift, but a few minutes afterwards deceased was on the top floor again, having apparently walked up the stairs. Oil returning in the lift to the ground floor •witness heard a thud and then saw deceased lying on the arcade pavement under the bridge. Herbert Spencer Kenning, warehouseman, said that about 8.40 a.m. oil Thursday he saw deceased on the top floor of the arcade building. Deceased talked to witness about trade matters and stated he was waiting for a man. He did not seem depressed, but was nervous and eould not stand still. Witness left him and a little later heard that he had been found lying on the ground floor. Evidence was also given by Ivie Brown, warehouseman, whose firm had employed deceased as a traveller, that deceased did not enjoy good health. When last seen by witness on October 28 he was talking as if he had hallucinations.

The coroner returned a verdict that deceased died from injuries received when he threw himself from the top floor of the Strand Arcade while in a state of mental depression, the result of a nervous breakdown.