A man named Henry Mahen, hanged himself yesterday morning, at the Universal Hotel, Maclaggan street. Mahen was staying at the public house, and at one o'clock yesterday morning, he was lying on a sofa in the dining-room, where he had been in the habit of sleeping, as he was not able to pay for a bed. At seven o'clock, the landlord found the poor fellow hanging by a piece of thin cord, which had been knotted to the balusters of the stairs. He was quite dead. — The deceased was about 50 years of age, and a native of Jersey. He was sober, when he was last seen alive; but during the last two months, he was three times in custody for drunkenness. -Otago Daily Times, 27/7/1868.
The Acting Coroner, Mr W. D. Murison, held an inquiry yesterday at the Hospital, into the cause of the death of Henry Mahen. Thomas Pavelitch, proprietor of the Universal Hotel, said the deceased had been lodging at his house. He saw the deceased at one o'clock on Sunday morning lying asleep on the sofa, and about seven o'clock observed him apparently sitting on the stairs. Upon examination he found that Mahen was dead, and there was a rope round his neck, which was suspended from the balustrade of the staircase. George Cenrick stated that he had seen the deceased at half-past four on Sunday morning on the stairs, and had asked him why he did not go to bed, but receiving no reply, had gone away. Constable Keligher described the position in which the body was when he had been called in. The medical evidence was to the effect that death was caused by strangulation. The jury found that the deceased had committed suicide while in a state of temporary in. sanity. -Otago Daily Times, 27/7/1868.
Henry Mahen lies in an unmarked grave in Dunedin's Southern Cemetery.
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