"DOCTOR, COME QUICKLY!"

NZ Truth, Issue 1285, 17 July 1930, Page 2

"DOCTOR, COME QUICKLY ! "

Tragic Suicide Follows News That Wife Is 111

WORRIED BY UNEMPLOYMENT (From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) Worried by unemployment and haunted by the spectre of workless days ahead at a time when his wife, just recovering after the birth ; of a fourth child, needed all the care and attention possible Nathaniel Lewis Valentine, collapsed mentally when the doctor told Jnm that his wife had to be removed to a hospital as she was threatened with pneumonia. ,They found him with a fatal wound m his throat;

IX7HEN the ■ doctor, "who attended "r Mrs. Valentine at her confinement, was called again to attend to her some three weeks later, he discovered she had developed pneumonia:- Thinking it would be advisable to >have fter removed to hospital he sent her neice, Ada Marcia Renner, outside to find Valentine: .' . . ' She did find him after some search —m the wash-house. He was leaning forward on a box, and m his throat a horrible gash that was later to prove fatal. ! ■ ■','■■■ Quieter Than Usual. In a written statement tendered to the Coroner, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., Dr. William Arthur Alexander said he had first come m contact with the family when he brought Mrs. Valentine's fourth baby into the world. "After the confinement was ' over," , stated Dr. Alexander, "Valentine came tom e and told me that he would only be able to pay me £2/2/- until such time as he should find, work again." Three weeks later, when he was again called, (he found the wife Buffering from pneumonia. Though he advised her that the best course for her would be to go to the Auckland Hospital, she was reluctant to go on ac-' I count of her baby. ': ,: "On hearing this;" said the' doctor, "I agreed to go away .and, call again next day. I then sent the niece out to fetch Mr. Valentine so that I' could tell him of his wife's condition. "When she returned she came screaming into; the room and said: 'Oh, Uncle! Why did you do it?' " Tie doctor then described how I he at once rushed outside to find Valentine sitting on a box, and on the floor around him a pool of blood. . "He was unconscious and'Jiis throat was cut. The wound was about two inches long and very deep. I did what I could, but he expired about five minutes later," Dr. Alexander said. "Subsequently/ 1 stated the doctor, "I found a table-knife with bloodstains oh it m the fireplace beneath the copper. The ordeal which Ada Marcia Renner, the 19-years-old niece, had to go through is- revealed m >her statement of the finding of the body. •., , She had been staying with the Valentines, she told the Coroner, since the baby was born. Her uncle had been out of work about a month. On the day of .the tragedyv he was up at four iri the morning attending tothe wants of. his sick wife. He was about the house as usual during the day, and also chopped some firewood. He appeared -quieter than usual, she stated. I , At a little after mid-day, the doctor arrived, and after examining Mrs. Valentine, he . asked to see her uncle. M | went out but could 'not find I

him about," the girl said. "The wash-house door was shut but not fastened. , "When I pushed the door open I saw him- sitting on a box leaning forward. There was a great gash m his throat and there was. blood all over the floor. "I called, out,. 'Doctor, come quickly/ and ran into the house with tb.6 baby mmy arms. [ •;■',.. "The. doctor, came at once, but my uncle never spoke.. I think he was dead when I opened the door." Miss Renner assured the Coroner that jshe had never heard her uncle talk of suicide and !his family life was always of the happiest. "I think he was worrying about his wife's health," she concluded. In answer to a question from Mr. Hunt, she stated that both the mother and baby had survived the tremendous shock and were progressing well. A verdict of suicide by cutting 'his throat while m a worried condition was passed. "It seems evident that losing his job made him 'mentally unbalanced," concluded the Corpner.