WANTED TO END IT

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXVI, Issue 7901, 12 September 1929, Page 3

WANTED TO END IT

ANOTHER SUICIDE FROM GRAFTON BRIDGE WELL-KNOWN EX-FOOTBALLER (Special to Telegraph) AUCKLAND, this day. “I am sorry to put you to this trouble. ... I have been working hard all my life, and wanted to <end it.” This was the calm statement made iby Mr Joseph Otway, aged 62 .after lie had plunged over Grafton Bridge yesterday morning, according to Mr A. Brown, of Astley Avenue, New Lynn, one of the party who struggled with him up the gully to an awaiting ambulance. < Mr Otway was conscious when taken to the hospital and outwardly appeared to be little injured, but succumbed to serious spinal injuries at 2.15 p.m. The sensation occurred shortly after 10.30 o’clock yesterday morning, when Grafton Bridge was practically deserted by traffic. The leap, which was made from the centre of the bridge to the gully 150 feet below, was witnessed by a Mr Morrison, who was looking out of a window in Park road. The alarm was raised Immediately and an ambulance and the police rushed to the scene. In his day Mr J. (“Nudger”) Otway was one of Auckland’s leading Rugby football forwards, and played as lock in many representative games both for the province and for New Zealand.