CORONER'S INQUEST.
An inquest was held at the Post Boy Hotel yesterday afternoon before Mr Coroner Curtis concerning the death of John Wallace Webster. The following were sworn on the jury: — Messrs B. Chisholm (foreman), W. Moyes, G. Morton, G, Kerr, C. Rout, and R. Kirkby. The jury having viewed the body at the residence of the father of the deceased, the following evidence was taken:
Grace Webster: The deceased was my brother. I saw him at half past five this morning passing close by my bedroom. He did not speak to me. I got up after three quarters of an hour and went and looked for him, I was afraid he was not well. He has been ill for some time, and not hearing him return I thought he could not be well. I went outside but could not see him. I then called my brother Ernest and Mr Pattie, my brother-in-law, who were both sleeping in the house. They got up and went and searched. I found a piece of paper in his bedroom, on which he had written that he was unhappy and that we should see him no more. In consequence of that I got alarmed and went and told my brother and brother-in-law about the letter. I never saw my brother alive afterwards.
By the Coroner: I did not hear the sound of pistol or of a gun going off.
Robert Pattie: I am brother in law to the deceased. I slept in the same house with him last night. I saw him go to bed at half past ten when he appeared to be in rather low spirits. This morning I got up and went into Ernest Webster's room, and Miss Webster came into the room about half past five, and said the deceased had been up about half an hour and she had been looking for him but could not find him. She said the deceased had left the house about a quarter past five. My brother-in law and I searched for him upon the hill and in the outhouses. Ernest Webster then said "let us look in the empty cottage over there." So we proceeded to the cottage, and just as I got there I heard the crack of a rifle and someone give a long groan inside. I said to my brother-in-law "You had better ride for a doctor, he must have shot himself," and I rushed into the cottage and found him in a sitting position in one of the back rooms. The rifle which had been, recently discharged was lying across his legs, and there was a bullet wound in the region of the heart. I lifted up his head but I saw no signs of life. There was not very much blood visible. My brother-in-law had in the meantime gone for a doctor.
Dr Mackie: I knew the deceased, I attended him last December. He was then suffering from acute inflammation of both ears, and the inflammation seemed to extend to the brain which would be likely to affect the mind. He had a prolonged and tedious illness then, but got better. I attended him again in April and May, when he was suffering from profound sleeplessness, accompanied by mental depression, which was sometimes better, sometimes worse. The mental depression and sleeplessness I attributed to a great extent to the injury the brain had sustained during the former illness. If not wholly resulting from it, it was greatly aggravated by it. I have not attended him since last May. I was called out a little after six o'clock this morning. When I arrived at the cottage adjoining Mr Webster's house I found the deceased quite dead. There was a bullet wound directly in the region of the heart. I saw a rifle beside him. The shirt was singed. The wound could be, and apparently was, self-inflicted. There was a stain on his trousers as if from smoke. There was a smell in the room as of a recent discharge. The body was quite warm. When I last saw him I did not look upon his mental depression as a result of worry but rather as a result of disease. The cause of death was the bullet wound in the region of the heart.
The Coroner briefly summed up, stating that there was ample evidence to show that the deceased's mind was affected, and the jury at once returned a verdict to the effect that death was caused by a gunshot wound self-inflicted by the deceased while in a temporary state of insanity. Nelson Evening Mail, 28/10/1890.
EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY OF U.S.A.
PROMPT SETTLEMENT.
George Ross, Esq., Resident Secretary
Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, Wellington, N.Z,
Dear Sir, — In acknowledging the receipt of your communication of the 15th inst., advising me that you had handed to my bankers a cheque for £500, in settlement of a claim made on a policy held in your Society by your late son John Wallace, I consider that something more than a mere formal receipt for the money is required at my hands, owing to the exceptional circumstances under which the claim was paid.
On the 2nd of December, 1889, my late son, John Wallace, effected an insurance on his life in your office for £500, and on the 20th, eighteen days afterwards, received a blow on the back of his head whilst wrestling with some companions, and he was seriously ill for some time afterwards. He, however, recovered so far as to get about and sometimes to attend to his business, and continued to do so off and on until the 27th of October 1890, a little over ten months after the policy was taken out, when he died by his own hand. A clause endorsed on the Policy relieves your Society from any risk of that kind until the Policy is three years old, but that clause notwithstanding your Society paid the claim in full, within half an hour after the Policy was presented for surrender, without raising one single quibble.
The broad, liberal principles which evidently guide your Directors in the management of their business, cannot be too highly commended, and you may rest assured that nothing shall be wanting on my part to further the interests of your Society whenever and wherever I can. You can make any use you like of this letter, as such liberal conduct on the part of a Life Insurance Institution cannot be too widely known.
I am Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully, (signed) M. M. Webster.
Trafalgar-st, Nelson, N.Z., 19th June, 1891. -Nelson Evening Mail, 2/7/1891.
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