OUT OF WORK AND DESPERATE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 87, 4 July 1927, Page 9

OUT OF WORK AND DESPERATE

DISTRACTED MAN ATTEMPTS SUICIDE ON HAMILTON BRIDGE (From Our Oum. Correspondent.) HAMILTON, To-day. Last evening many passers over Hamilton railway bridge, which is elevated nearly 100 ft. above the river, were attracted by a tall young man Ernest Lowe, who leaned on the han< rail. When he got the traffic clear the man climbed over on to the rail way line and made his way for the girders, which gave him a clear drop into the cold waters a long way below. He apparently was determined on tak ing a plunge, when halted by the voice of a woman. He did not take the fatal leap, and these entreaties and the sobering counsel of a policeman and the vision of mother lying stricken with a dread malady, saved the mans life. Through being out of work anrl having no money, he was unable to contribute to his mother's support and thoughts of suicide came over him. Lowe, in a signed statement while at the police station for the night, re vealed these aspects and showed that he owed his landlady money for board. At the Court this morning the Magistrate said that while Lowe may have had the intention to commit suicide he could hardly be said to have attempted to end his life. A helping hand was preferred by a cleric and Lowe’s landlady. He was convicted and discharged and urged by the Bench not to abuse the helping hand and not to be so foolish as to again think of taking his life.