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Waikato Independent, Volume III, Issue 184, 27 January 1906, Page 7

A notion truly American in its up-to-dateness is thus described by the Sydney Morning Herald’s correspondent in the States: —The startling increase in the percentage of self-murder in this country, and the undoubted existence of scores of suicide-pacts—sometimes between two persons only, but also, in other rare cases, between members of a club of six or a dozen, or even a score—have, however, led to the organisation upon a serious basis, of an un-official anti-suicide commission, whose functions are somewhat similar. There is a regular headquarters at Cleveland, Ohio, and here, in response to a general invitation to prospective suicides, hundreds of letters have already in a few weeks been received from genuinely desperate men and women. In all cases advice is given, and wherever possible the applicant is also put in the way of receiving substantial assistance. The purses of some wealthy men are available in some special cases; but, as the plan now is, neither donor nor beneficiary are ever to know each other’s names. If the project lasts, its founders propose to establish in due time temporary “ homes for the despondent,” and since in the great majority of cases so far acted upon, the main trouble complained of is not pecuniary, they might perhaps be kept well distinct from mere asylums for the destitute. Even as a short-lived experiment this recognition of one of the saddest prevalent tendencies of the race is indeed a sign, of the times. But it really seems to have a chance to have more than a mere transient existence.