LOVE TRAGEDY.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17713, 17 May 1929, Page 9

LOVE TRAGEDY.

N.Z, GIRL’S DEATH. I BODY FOUND IN SYDNEY FLAT. (From a Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 2. Despondent at her lack of employment, and a fancied mistake in love, Marjorie Talk, 30, a pretty single girl, used her last twopence to operate a slot gas meter in lice fiat at Darlingburst, Sydney, last Friday, asphyxiated herself, and lay dead for three days until her body was discovered. She is believed to have an uncle in Sydney, but. according to statements she made before her death, her parents arc in New Zealand, and she is believed to have been highly connected. A note she left addressed to a young man was dated 1 a.m. Friday last, and it is concluded that she died a few T minutes after she had written the letter. The police who investigated the case were particularly impressed by the minuteness of the girl’s preparations for the end.

T-he fiat was left spotlessly clean and tidy. What few clothes the girl possessed xverc either hanging neatly in (he cupboard or folded carefully in flic drawers. The young woman was an expert stenographer, but she had been out of employment for a considerable period, and despite constant application she had been unsuccessful in her bids for a position. She told her landlady that she had appealed to her parents in New Zealand for money to tide her over the time she was waiting for a position, and she appeared to be more despondent than ever when they did not answer her appeal. And yet it is believed that she was to have started work ii; a city office last Monday.

The girl’s finances were at such a low ebb that she had even pawned her suitcase, so that the police had to take away her effects in parcels. Not a penny was left in her purse, and the police are convinced that her last money was used lo operate the gas meter which gave off just sufficient gas to end her life. She had been living in the flat for more than twelve months, and she was particularly fond of a certain young man. In a letter she left addressed to him she indicated that site intended to take her life, and she apologised for “being such a fool.” It seemed apparent that she was very fond of tiirn, and had heard him telephone some other girl in affectionate terms. This, maybe, was tiie deciding factor. Her landlady walked into the fiat and saw everything was clean and tidy and Hie bed made as usual, and she- saw nothing unusual, in her swift glance around the rooms. It was not until her second visit much later in ihe day that she discovered the tragedy.