FROM ETERNITY

NZ Truth, Issue 1168, 19 April 1928, Page 7

FROM ETERNITY

Police Arrived Just In Time (From "N.Z. Truth's" Dunedin Rep.) Passers-by m the vicinity of the police headquarters m High Street, Dunedin, on a recent morning were eye-witnesses of a loving embrace between a middleaged couple. TTHE incident was not, as many would 1 have imagined, a fond farewell prior to the serving of a life sentence — it was the reunion after five days of compulsory separation of the principals m a case m which a man, whose name was suppressed by S.M. Bartholomew, was charged with endeavoring to terminate his span of life by gas poisoning. The defendant, a married man whose wife is the inmate of a mental hospital, was said to have become enamored of the affections of a Dunedin woman living apart from her husband, but with the approach of the Easter festivities the course of true love lived up to its reputation and the parties had a few friendly discussions after the hot-cross buns had been served. Some people have crude ideas of humor and the Romeo m this action, keen on frightening his Juliet, went into the kitchenette and placed a gas-tube m his mouth. When the police went to quell the disturbance m the dovecote, the defendant was found to be m a semistupor with the gas he had inhaled and he violently resisted any attempts by the arbitrators to snatch him from eternity. Magistrate Bartholomew agreed to adjourn the case for six months, when — if the defendant's behavior is satisfactory — the case will be withdrawn.