DETERMINED SUICIDE.
(PER UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Dunedin, Jan 17.
Thomas Price, bootmaker. Princess Street, committed suicide early this morning by putting a shot gun to his mouth and shooting himself. He was a widower, aged 57, and had been drinking heavily since Christmas. -Wanganui Herald, 17/1/1882.
FUNERAL NOTICE.
THE Friends of the late Mr Thomas Price are respectfully requested to attend his Funeral, which will leave the Morgue, Lower High street, for the Southern Cemetery, Tomorrow (Thursday), the 19th inst.. at 2 30 p.m.
GOURLEY AND LEWIS, Undertakers, George and Maclaggan streets. -Evening Star, 18/1/1882.
INQUEST.
An inquest was held at the Auld Scotland Hotel to-day, before the Coroner (Mr Hocken) and a jury of twelve, on the body of Thomas Price, who committal suicide yesterday by shooting himself. Inspector Weldon watched the proceedings on behalf of the police.
After stating the nature of the case, the Coroner said: I am sorry, gentlemen, that you have some little distance to go to view the body at the morgue; still, provision has not been completed so as to make it convenient for jurymen. It seems that there is some hitch between the Government and the Corporation as to which is the proper body to prepare the court and morgue. I hope, however, that the matter will soon be arranged, for as it is it is a great trouble to everyone.
Patrick Hally stated: I was apprenticed to the deceased Thomas Price, and had been with him for the last fourteen months. I last saw him at six o'clock on Monday evening reading a newspaper in his shop. Deceased generally slept in a room at the back of the shop. At eight o'clock yesterday morning I knocked it the back door for admittance. Receiving no answer, Mr Bell, senr, who lives next door, advised me to look through the window, so I climbed on to the sill, and on looking into the bedroom I saw the gun produced on the floor with the deceased lying over the butt-end of it. The muzzle was projecting from under the body of the deceased, whose head was in a pool of blood. Deceased's right hand was near the trigger of the gun, and the left was over his breast. The bedclothes were not disturbed, and the deceased was dressed in his ordinary clothes, with his slippers on. I told Mr Bell that I thought deceased had shot himself, and he advised me to go and tell Mr Milner. I did so and also fetched Dr Reimer. Both the front and the back doors were locked, so Mr Thomas Bell entered through the window and opened the back door to us. Dr Reimer pronounced the deceased to be quite dead. On the dressingtable was a box of caps, and a writing-desk was removed from its usual position, some letters also being strewn over it. The gun was kept unloaded, I think, in the corner of his bedroom. He also kept a powder flask and shot pouch, which he had lent along with the gun about a month ago, and which had been returned yesterday morning. I saw two powder flasks on the table in his bedroom. Deceased was in the habit of taking drink, and since Christmas he had been in a muddled state, which prevented him from attending to his business. He was in that state on Monday evening when I left him. He very seldom came into the shop, chiefly confining himself to his bedroom.
John Agnew, clerk at the City Hotel, stated that he last saw deceased about a quarter past five on Monday evening, when he (deceased) came into the hotel, looked into both bars and then withdrew. Witness knew that the deceased had been drinking since Christmas. On Friday he took him some soup and a large piece of bread, of which he partook, but he refused to take any beef, saying he could not eat it. Deceased was very drunk on that date.
John Qgg, proprietor of the Caledonia Hotel, Anderson Bay, said that the deceased, whom he had known for the last five or six years, was a man of intemperate habits. Last Monday witness went up to Price's shop to try and persuade him to stop drinking, and he promised faithfully to do so. He was a great friend of the deceased, who had never said to him that he was tired of life.
James Milner, auctioneer, stated that the deceased was sixty one years of age, a native of Cheltenham or Bath, a widower without family, and bootmaker by trade and of the Church of England faith. Deceased had been in Colony for the last twenty-nine years, and had arrived in this Colony from Melbourne. Deceased was a man of intemperate habits, and on Monday witness, along with Mr Ogg, got him to promise to stop drinking.
Edward Phillips, night watchman at the Glasgow Pie House, stated that he saw the deceased between half-past six and seven o'clock yesterday morning, when he came into the bar and asked for some cased brandy, which he drank with soda and then left.
Sergeant Gearin stated that when he entered the deceased's room yesterday morning at nine o'clock he found the gun produced lying beneath the deceased. There was a broken cap on the nipple of the right barrel, which appeared to have been but recently discharged. The left barrel was unloaded. The room did not appear to have been disturbed. On his person were found 3s 9d and several other small articles.
Dr Reimcr stated that he had examined the wound on deceased's head and found that it had been caused by the gun having been placed to the mouth. The shot had shattered the left temple bone completely, and there was a wound behind the right ear caused by the concussion.
The Coroner mentioned that Mr Fish had called upon him this morning about giving evidence, but he (the Coroner) did not think it would be necessary. It appeared that there was some letter in the paper this morning referring to the Bowling Club. He had not seen the letter, but Mr Fish thought that the deceased's connection with the matters referred to in it had nothing to do with the suicide. Deceased was treasurer of this Bowling Club, and for a long time past he had been unable to discharge; his duties. In December he was written to, stating that his services would no longer be required and requesting that he would hand over the books. No notice was taken of the letter, nor of a second one that was sent. These letters were just of the ordinary kind. They contained no charge of dishonesty, but simply intimated that owing to inattention to his duties the deceased's services would not be further required.
A verdict of "Suicide, committed whilst in a state of temporary insanity," was returned. -Evening Star, 18/1/1882.
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