SENTENCED TO FIVE MINUTES IN GAOL

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17878, 21 June 1926, Page 5

SENTENCED TO FIVE MINUTES IN GAOL

UNEMPLOYED MAN ATTEMPTS SUICIDE; TOLD HE WAS SILLY. SYDNEY, June 11. In two sensational instances this week police have stepped in, in the nick of time, and prevented suicides. On Wednesday night Redfern police were informed that Michael King, aged thirty-eight, a carrier, was in the act of committing suicide at his home in RedA constable raced to the address and found King rubbing together two knives. Blood was already showing j from' a .cut 'under' his 'chin He told the constable that he was a sick'man and intended to kill himself: Worried to desperation by unemployment, his will power weakened by the lack of food, King was at his last gasp, lie was taken to the police station and charged with having attempted to commit suicide. It was explained in court next morning that the police knew him to be a most respectable, man, unfortunate in his search for employment. He is a married man. with seven children, and he had told the police that the spectacle of seeing his familv starve slowly had become more than he could l>ear. He was. sfentenced to five minutes’ imprisonment. the Magistrate impressing on him that the attempt at suicide was silly and unworthy of him, besides being grossly unfair to his wife. Since publication of the facts a charitable organisation has agreed to pay the rent and supply’ groceries to the family, while King continues his search f-or work, while the Sunshine -Club has undertaken to help with outings for the children. On Brink of Gap. "\\ hen she was on the point of leaping to the rocks hundreds of feet below the Gap at Watson’s Bay, police, who had raced at sixty miles an hour from the city, struggled and overcame a youngs woman who was determined to end her life.

Singularly- enough, it was the Redfern police who received the first intimation of that case. They were informed that the young woman had left her home, having written a note to the effect that she was going to the Gap to take her life. It was nearly’ an hour after she had gone that her parents found the note, and. in the meantime, she had time to get to Watson’s Bay. But a wireless message was sent out to the police night patrol, which broke all speed records in the race against death. When they reached the Gap two of the patrolmen jumped out and ran to the fence which protects the public from the cliffs. On the edge of the drop they- could see the woman crouched. At their approach she rose to her feet and prepared to jump, but the police leapt the fence and grasped her dress Just in time. She struggled and begged to be allowed to go oyer, but the patrolmen overcame her and . took her to the Reception House for the night. The delusion that everyone in the neighbourhood was talking about her seems to have caused her to lose her reaso ntemporarily.