MAN TOOK POISON WHEN ORDERED OUT OF HOUSE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18958, 2 January 1930, Page 9

MAN TOOK POISON WHEN ORDERED OUT OF HOUSE.

Was Found Under Woman's Bed In Early Hours Of Morning

Per Press Association. DANNEVIRKE, January 2. One family yi Dannevirke have cause to remember the dawn of the New Year for it was ushered in for them under very tragic circumstances. Harold James Hay, aged about fortyfive, a commercial traveller in the employ of IT. F. Stevens and Co., wholesale druggists, Christchurch, committed suicide in the early hours of New \ ear’s Day by taking poison following unusual circumstances. Early on New Year’s Eve he had been a visitor to the house of Mr F. T. P. Cotter, railway clerk, of 97, M’Phee Street. A little after nine o’clock Mr and Mrs Cotter, with a lady visitor from Wellington, Miss Stevens, a sister of Mrs Cotter, left the house to spend the evening with some neighbours, Mr and Mrs A. Fussell, carefully locking all the doors and windows before going out. They left Hay at the front gate. He said he was going to Marton and they wished him a happy New Year. Mr and Mrs Cotter and her sister returned home about three o’clock on New Year’s morning and retired to bed. Mrs Cotter’s sister, as was ap- ; parently her usual custom, looked under the bed before getting in and found Hay underneath it. She became alarmed and told him to leave the house at once, and that she would call Mrs Cotter. Hay told Miss Stevens not to call her sister, or make a disturbance. Miss Stevens left the bed-

room and called out to Mrs Cotter, who found the deceased standing in the passage at Miss Stevens’s bedroom door, and requested him to leave the house. Hay then went and sat on Miss Stevens's bed, took from his pocket a small bottle and drank its contents, falling across the bed. Air Cotter, being unaware that Hay had taken poison, and believing him to be under the influence of liquor, pushed him out the front door on to the verandah and the family then retired to bed. Some time later Mr Cotter’s attention was directed to moans coming from the direction of the verandah, and on looking through one of the front rooms he saw the deceased lying very still. Cotter became alarmed and went for the assistance of Mr A. T. Russell. They made an examination of deceased and came to the conclusion that he was dead. They then telephoned the police. A doctor was summoned and pronounced life extinct. Deceased had been in Dannevirke since December 24, and his address is given as No, 3. Pine Grove Road, Devonport, Auckland. He was a married man with two children. Hay apparently gained access to the house through an unlocked scullery window. Whether the man had any sinister motive at present has not been revealed. Hay was said to be on friendly terms with Miss Stevens. Hay was a son of a retired postmaster who lives at Northcote, Auckland, and has a brother in Hastings.