BROKER'S SUICIDE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17152, 30 September 1926, Page 8

BROKER'S SUICIDE

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES SHORTAGE OF £3300 (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this- day. At the inquest on Hnssell George ¥. Garland; who was found dead in his office on September 14, it was stated that the day before- ho died Garland failed to keep several business appointments and went motoring all day. In his car was found a copy of "Tales of Illusion," and on n leaf was the following note in his writing: "To many I must be u disappointment; none more than to myself. I do not know why I could not have been taken during the war instead of being left to bring misery to many us a result of my folly." Mr. Knight, a, public accountant, said that three mouths ago Garland asked him to establish for him a system of keeping accounts. Previously he had not even a cash book. He had a large overdraft but that was guaranteed by ono of his friends. He was not solvent, and must have had considerable financial wort;.-. Witness know one association entrusted Carland with £SOOO for investment in debentures. He used that to take the place of the capital he did not pqssess. There was also a sum of £IOOO which witness believed was the cause of his last act. ft was given him to invest in Inscribed Stock, which he did not d 0.., That, together with the fact that the bank was pressing him to reduce his overdraft, or lodge security against it, and that the guarantor had asked for Garland's guarantee to lie withdrawn, was the immediate cause of Garland's final worries. His stockbroking papers showed that he was •£3300 out, exclusive of private debts and liabilities. The Coroner found a verdict of suicide. ;