MAN HANGS HIMSELF

Taranaki Daily News, 7 August 1930, Page 12

MAN HANGS HIMSELF

CO RON lAL INQUIRY HELD. DESPONDENT AFTER ILLNESS. “Ernest Southam Beckwith was despondent after his long illness and the evidence, indicates that he had thought of taking his life; the verdict will therefore be that lie died by strangulation self-inflicted while suffering from mental distress as the result of illness,” said the coroner, Mr. W. L. Kennedy, at Stratford yesterday after the inquiry into the death of Beckwith, who was found hanging from a road signpost at Tututawa on Tuesday. John E. Southam, labourer at Tututawa and half-brother of the dead man, said Beckwith was a single man 23 years of age following the occupation of farm labourer. Southam last saw him alive at 3 p.m. on Monday when he was leaving in company with G. F. Muggle ton. About 9.15 p.m. Muggleton came to see Southam at his home and informed him that Beckwith had disappeared. A search produced no result. Southam knew Beckwith was a nioody man who used often to go away by himself. That was the first occasion, however, that he had gone out at night. For six months Beckwith had been the inmate of the Taihape and New Plymouth hospitals previous to his return to Tututawa a month ago. George G. Muggleton, farmer of Tututawa, who had known Beckwith for some years, on Monday afternoon called to take him to Muggleton’s farm where Beckwith was to do light work. About 7 p.m. Beckwith went to his room and ten minutes later left the house. Surprised at Beckwith’s non-appearance by 9 p.m. Muggleton visited his home but found he was not there. Aftei - tea Beckwith had seemed a little low-spirited but had been talking rationally. At 7.29 a.m. on Tuesday he drove a lorry from his front gate, stated Leonard J. Caskey, road foreman employed by the Stratford County* Council at Tututawa. He saw the body of a man whom he recognised as Beckwith hanging from the signpost at the cross-roads. Caskey cut the body down but Beckwith had been dead for some time. Constable 11. Shields said examination showed that Beckwith’s neck had been broken. HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP. ELTHAM LADIES' CLUB TEAM. The following Eltham ladies’ hockey team will meet Inglewood at Stratford High’ School to-day for the chain- . pionship final: R. Potts, P. Wylds, ,M. Smith, M. Taylor, L. Potts, A. Foote? B. Walker, M.* Gower, R. Townsend, P. Clare, I. Thomas; emergencies, forward, M. Armstrong; back, I. Potts. Following is the Eltham junior men’s team to play Stratford B at Taumata Park at 3 p.m. to-day:—Baldock,, Taylor, Cullen, Gyde, Whittington, Walker, Glentworth,’ Ewans, Parker, Cobb, Gower, Jones. iGENERAL ITEMS. The Stratford third grade Rugby team to play luglewood at Inglewood at 2.45 to-day will be picked from the following:—Collins, Harkness, Butcher, Harper, Weston, Wellington, I. Bamford, Recd, Sullivan, Donnelly, Fawcett, Death, Vincent, O’Shannessey, Huckstep, Vivian, Verney, See. The game is the semi-final of the central division championship. The Eltham Brass Band’s euchre party prizes on Monday were won as follows: —Ladies, Miss Furborough 1, Mrs. Morris 2; men, Mr. E. ’ Trass 1, Mr Keys 2. Consolation prizes were awarded to Miss Ogden and Mr. J. Hamilton. Mr. A. Borland announces in the advertising columns that he has opened the monumental yard in Juliet Street, Stratford, recently conducted, by the late Mr. W. E. Goffin. Mr. Borland guarantees his workmanship. KING’S THEATRE—STRATFORD.

“CHILDREN OF PLEASURE.” The story concerns Danny Regan, successful Broadway song writer, who, unaware that Emma Gray, his secretary, is hopelessly in love with him, meets Patricia Thayer, an heiress, and after an impetuous courtship gets her consent to marry him, although her society friends had expected her to marry Rodney Peck, a member of her own class. On the day before the wedding a dress rehearsal is held at the Thayer estate on Long Island, and Danny overhears a conversation between Patricia and Rodney in which is .revealed the fact that she is only marrying Danny as an “experiment,” and expects to marry Rodney after the “divorce.” Furious, Danny refuses to go through with the rehearsal and leads the band in a satirical parade of the wedding march, then rushing out of the house. A splendid cast brings the various parts to life, Lawrence Gray being particularly good in the leading role and Wynne Gibson giving an effective portrayal of the secretary, Helen Johnson, a newcomer to the screen, who looks and acts like the late Jeanne Eagels, is excellent as the society debutante. The songs are the type that you whistle as you walk out of the theatre. “Leave It that Way,” “The Better Things In Life,” “A Couple of Birds,” and “The Whole Darned Thing’s For You,” will probably be heard on every gramophone, radio and dance floor iu town.