SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1886.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 7192, 9 October 1886, Page 2

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1886.

The record of suicides in New Zealand must be increasing, for during the last week or so more than the usual average of persons have shuffled off this mortal coil in a hurried manner, and before their allotted time had run according to nature. "We learn from the statistical table that; last year 54 persons committed suicide, 44 of them being males and 10 females ; the previous year only 15 took their lives, only one of them being a woman ; in 1883 46 males and nine females committed self-murder ; and previous to that the number did not exceed 15 in each year. The earliest age last year at which the desire for suicide manifested itself was from ten to fifteen, being that of a girl who poisoned herself; but the favorite time, it seems, for persons to commit self-destruction is between twenty-five and fifty-five. As far as can be gathered, it is not so much the madness of drink which leads to these sad occurrences as despondency. From a record kept in New York during 1884, it was found that out of 1409 suicides the aggregate as to known cause of motive of more than one thousand was as follows : — Business troubles, 111 ; chagrin of parental discipline, 18; destitution, 46 ; dissipation, 111 ; family troubles, 170 ; grief, 60 ; home-sickness, 1 ; insanity, 276 ; love troubles, 94 ; pimple on nose, 1 ; sicknegs, 149 ; to avoid assassination, 2 ; undergoing or threatened with punishment, 46. Some of these impelling motives were certainly both curious and absurd. We are told that an Indiana young woman committed suicide because her sweetheart took another young woman on an excursion. A Pennsylvania school teacher swalJowed laudanum on account of an ir curable pimple on her nose, which made her morbidly sensitive. An Ohio politician, a candidate for office, •committed suicide beoause he suffered defeat. An Indiana candidate for mayor took his own life for the same reason. A Colorado millionaire, who squandered his money in riotous living, shot himself in a fit of desperation. A New York German believed [ himself bewitched, and .that all his money troubles weife due to witches, aud for this reason he destroyed himself. A Missouri criminal committed suicide from. regret that while he had killed threo men and one woman he had not killed two more. A Tennessee student died by his own hand because an examination of the thoughts of the ancients convinced him thdt man's life was his own property and no discredit attached to suicide, and so on. As to the occupation of these suicides, it appears that farmers lead the list, no fewer than 221 such being reoorded. Merchants come next, to the number of 87. Of labourers thero were 62, and of saloon keepers the number was 41. Of some other occupations the record specifies : Physicians, 27 ; politicians, 22 ; commercial travellers aud courtesans, 21 each; lawyers, 17; engineers, 15; shoemakers, 14 ; butchers, servants, and tailors, 11 each ; jewellers aud miners, 10 each; tramps, masons, machinists, aud journalists, 8 each ; school teachers and speculators, 9 each ; barbers, carpenters, gardeners, and printers, 7 each. By an odd coincidence, an equal number of judges, gamblers, cigar-makers, drug clerks, postmasters, and waiters (five each) took their own lives ; and, sad to say, four ministers find place in tlie doleful record. As to sexes, _ the men are ahead by a large majority, there being 1083 males and 826 females i>x the list. If wo note the suioides which have occurred during the labt week in the Colony they are from oauses very similar. A schoolmaster accused of immoral conduct with the female pupils ; a young man has a dispute with his mother ; an elderly man in a state of melancholy despondency ; and another through heavy losses he had sustained, are the causes which during the past week have led individuals to destroy themselves. For those who aye ea«

joying good health and are in comfortable circumstances, with nothing to annoy them, it must seem dreadful that personß should be driven to take their lives because they are tired of living ; but when onee — so those who have studied the subjeot say — a determination to die has been come to, it would seem almost a vain thing to endeavor to prevent its accomplishment. It is clearly, therefore, a species of insanity, and incurable.