ROADMAN’S DEATH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18190, 11 September 1933, Page 4

ROADMAN’S DEATH

TRAGEDY AT PARIKANAPA GUNSHQT WOUND IN HEAD FINE MILITARY RECORD A verdict that death was due to a. gunshot wound in the head, the v6§and being self-inflicted, was returned by the district coroner, Mr. E. L. Walton, S.M., at the close of an inquest held yesterday at Patutahi into the cause of the death of Wesley Overend, whose body was found on Saturday afternoon in bis whare on the Parikanapa road. The evidence indicated that the deceased had tied a loop of cord to the trigger of a shot-gun, placed his foot in the loop, and discharged the gun with fatal results. _ In the course of the inquest, at which Constable Allen, of Patutahi, represented the police, it was stated that the body was found bv Mr. B. E. Reedy, when lie visited Mr. Overend’s whare at 1.30 p.m. on Saturday. Two other residents of the Parikanapa locality, Messrs. D’Arcy McKay and Richard Jeffreys, stated that they had seen the deceased on Thursday last, but there was no evidence of anyone having seen him alive after that meeting. The brother of the deceased, Miv Robert Overend. identified the bodv and gave the deceased s age as 41 year's. Mr. Overend stated in reply to the coroner that he knew of no- circumslarices which could have caused his brother to take his life. After formal evidence had been given by Constable Alien, the coroner returned Ills verdict as above. FINE MILITARY RECORD

The late Mr. Wesley Overend was n single man, and for three years had been in the employ of the Cook County Council as a roadman, in which capacity he had lived alone on the Parikanapa road for some time. He was a returned soldier with a fine military record, and was highly popular and well-esteemed by his old comrades of the N.Z.E.F. He enlisted in die early stages of tbe Great War, in January, 1915, and went overseas with the Fourth Reinforcements, as a member of the Hawke’s Bay Regiment. He saw service in Egypt and on Gallipoli Peninsula, where he suffered a severe wound during the August attack on Hill 971. He was sent to Egypt for hospital treatment, and then returned to the peninsula, where he remained until the evacuation.

Accompanying his regiment on the move to the Western Front, he fought successively at the Somme, Messines and Passchendaele, and likewise served with credit through the long intervals of trench occupation which separated those notable achievements on the part of the New Zealand Division. After Passchendaele, he continued to serve in the Salient at Ypres, until in October, 1917, he suffered a second wound, which occasioned his evacuation to England. After passing through the hospital there he was' appointed a sergeant-instructor at Codford Military Depot, where he was engaged until the close of hostilities in preparing later reinforcements for service in France. He gained the Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry under fire, and had four years’ service to his credit, most of it in the fighting area, when he was returned to New Zealand for discharge in 1919. After his discharge, Mr. Overend worked on various stations in Poverty Bay, and then removed to Auckland, returning to Gisborne three years ago and securing employment with the . Cook Comity Council, being continuously in that employment until his death. The late Mr. Overend was a North of Ireland man, and did not come to New Zealand until 1911. He was well known in Poverty Bay, where his sister, Mrs. W. C. Mann, "and his brother, Mr. Robert Overend, are both resident. His parents are both dead. Much sympathy will be extended to Mrs. Mann and Mr. R. Overend in their sad bereavfement.