A STRANGE SUICIDE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 11, 29 August 1911, Page 5

A STRANGE SUICIDE.

i An inquest was held at the New Plymouth-Courthouse yesterday morning concerning the death of the Maori flame Poe Motunui, a farmer near Waitara, who (Jied in the New Plymouth Hospital from wounds alleged : iib be self-inflicted with an axe, on 'Friday mornihg. Polly Pue, sixteen years of ago, said the deceased was her father. Snc lived, with him at Okawa. On Friday morning he had breakfast pretty early, , and she did not sec him until after ten o’clock, when ho was walking up from a piece of bush which they could see from the house.* He was staggering. He climbed over a fence near a haystack and then fell dbwri. She ran to fetch assistance, and then went with another Maori to where her father w r as lying. In the meantime her mother had run down. Her father w r as covered with blood and did nob speak to anyone. To the Coroner: She had never

heard her father say he would kill himself. At times he had been very pe- ' culiar, He went away on Friday morning without speaking to anyone. Dr. Wylie said deceased was admit-' . ted to the hospital at 11 o’clock p.m. J, on Friday, the 24th, and died at fv 12.40 a.in. on the 27th. On examina- / tion of the deceased shortly after admission to the hospital he was found to be suffering from extensive injuries to his headj which necessitated the Serf ormance of an operation. The eceased was conscious, and before the anaesthetic was administered witness asked him who had caused the injuries, arid his reply was that it was all his own work. He also told witness he caused the injuries with an axe. Dr. Home administered the anaesthetic acted as interpreter during this Tt conversation. Witness then described || 'the injuries. There were evidences of many 'blows. The operation consisted in cleani‘ r| " the various wounds as far as possible, and in the removal of a

piece of bone which was pressing on me brain and its membranes. Pieces of grass and fern wore also removed from the surface of the brain. Tne wounds were brought together as far as possible, the bleeding stopped, and suitable dressings applied, and then deceased was removed to bed. Later he showed signs of acute septic intlainmation of the brain following on the injuries, and this was the cause of death. Witness was of the opinion that the injuries were self-inhicted. Tne direction of the different wounds suggested that they were self-inflict-ed. The man must have been in a condition of intense frenzy at tho time, and so far as witness knew it might be described as an unique way of committing suicide. It was quite possible for deceased to have walked as described by tho witnesses. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with tiie medical evidence.