Please note: the attitudes to Chinese people presented here are those of teir day and a presented as such. I do not share them.
DUNEDIN. 13th March.
A Chinaman named Ah Wong hanged himself in Stafford-street last night. -Evening Post, 14/2/1877.
SUICIDE.
Mr I. N. Watt, Acting-Coroner, and a jury of twelve, held an inquest at the Hospital at noon to-day on the body of Ah Wong.
Wong Ming (whose evidence was interpreted by Wi Yak) deposed that he knew the deceased. He was forty-two years of age, a butcher by occupation, and had been seventeen years in the Colony, Witness last saw him alive at 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon. He was then in a Chinese cabinetmaker’s shop in George street. Witness next saw him hanging by the neck in the house of the Chinese doctor in Flinders Lane, off Stafford sheet. He was quite dead. The paper produced with Chinese characters on it witness found on a table in the house. The writing was by Ah Wong. It stated that he came to the Colony seventeen years ago. He had bad luck and owed too much money. He had no money and was going to die. His parents reared him up as big as he then was and he could not go home to see them. He was afraid to live in Dunedin, and would sooner be a devil than a man. He owed money and could not pay it, but would in his next life. The letter was written to a brother in China. On discovering the deceased hanging, witness gave information to the police, and the body was removed to the hospital.
Constable Oliver stated that at 11.35 p.m. on the 12th he was informed by the last witness that there was something wrong in the Chinese lane. Witness found the deceased hanging in the door in Chin Sang’s residence. He immediately took down the body and found it was warm. Sergt, Barry then came in, and Dr Cowie was sent for. When he arrived he pronounced life extinct. Deceased hanged himself with the sash produced.
Dr. Cowie deposed that about 11.45 p.m. on Monday last he was called to see the deceased. He examined the body and found life to be extinct. The deceased had probably been dead from an hour to an hour and a-half.
A verdict of felo de se was returned. -Evening Star, 14/3/1877.
We were apprised the other day that a Chinaman, named Ah Wong, having hung himself in Otago, the jury returned a verdict of felo de se. Deceased left behind him an explanation, which ran as follows: — "Came to the Colony 17 years ago, but had no luck and did not make any money. Owed too much money. Having no money, will hang myself and die. My parents brought me up as big as I am now, and I can't go home to see them. If I remain in Dunedin, I am afraid every day, and would sooner be a devil than a man. I owe people money and can't give it to them back. I owe it this time, but next time I live I will pay it. To die is nothing. I have a brother in China to whom I would like this sent." On this philosophical and businesslike statement the jury concluded that deceased was of sound mind. And yet, it is almost certain that if any European had followed Ah Wong's mode of temporarily giving his creditors the slip, and left behind him a similar epistle, the same jury would unhesitatingly, on the evidence of such a letter, have returned a verdict to the effect that deceased committed suicide while of unsound mind. That which is regarded as proof of the Chinaman's sanity, would be regarded as equally convincing proof of madness in a person of European race. Could a greater compliment be paid to Chinese philosophy, or a stronger belief in its genuine and cool-headed character, as contrasted with some other systems, be expressed than that contained in the verdict upon this simple Chinaman, who preferred to be a devil rather than be plagued by Dunedin duns? -Press, 21/3/1877.
There must be something honest and conscientious after all about "that heathen Chinee." One Ah Wong recently hanged himself at Dunedin. He left a sort of dying speech and confession in writing before he did the sus per coll business. This document stated "that he (Ah Wong) had come to the colony seventeen years ago. He had bad luck and owed too much money. He had no money and was going to die. His parents had reared him up as big as he then was, and he could not go home to see them. He was afraid to live in Dunedin, and would sooner be a devil than a man. He owed money and could not pay it, but would in his next life." The creed of "Ah Wong" puzzles us. He intended to pay his debts contracted in this world "in the next life." We wonder what he meant by that. Did he mean that by-and-bye be would undergo a process of resurrection and come back from the other world, look up his creditors here and pay them in full — or did he mean that he would expiate his debts by undergoing an extra amount of punishment in "his next life." Poor, unhappy Ah Wong, thy conscience must have indeed been tender to think so much about your debts, when by aid of a silken scarf and a peg in a door you were about to suspend yourself and pay "the great debt of nature." And that all this honesty of intention should be found displayed in the ease of "a heathen Chinee," must put some "whitewashed" Christians to the blush. -Evening Post, 23/3/1877.
The remains of Ah Wong lie in Dunedin's Northern Cemetery.
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