VICTORIA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8333, 9 April 1889, Page 3

VICTORIA.

A number ot suicides, some of them being of a remarkable character, have occurred in Melbourne lately. On Msuch 30th T. C. Brawer, a young German who had been employed in the picture gallery at the Exhibition, shot himself in the head with a British bull-dog revolver in a first-class railway carriage on'the Brighton line. There was no one else in the carriage, and Brawer must have com|r mitted the act just before the train pulled up at the Middle Brighton station, fur his body was quite warm. In the left hand, strange to relate, there was still held a partly-smoked cigarette. It appealed as .if Brawer had been sitting smoking when he committed the deed. Two letters were found on him. One was opened and translated from the German into English as follows : — " Dear Captain Wagevmann, — Forgive what I am going to do, Imt the doctors say I cannot, be cured of this sickness. It affects the brain ami mj nerves are very weak. It is impossible I can. marry the girl I have loved since I have been in Melbourne. I also got acquainted with two young ladies with money and three married women, all of ■whom love me. AH this has weakened my nerves until I cannot depend on tlicni at all." A ..letter addressed to Julius Brawer, deceased's father, was not opened. The deceased was a very good-looking man of little more than 30 years of age. On the day that the inquest was held on young Brawer the coroner and several of the witnesses, after the inquiry was over, were standing on the platform at the Middle Brighton station waitine for the train to take them back to Mcl- ■ bourne, when a young and well attired female, who was also standing on the platform, apparently waiting for a train, was spoken to by one of the witnesses named Ryan, and asked at what time the next train went to Melbourne. The young lady's reply to Ryan was inaudible, and he turned away. A train was then approaching, and on glancing round again Ryan was horrified to see the yonng lady throw herself in front of the engine. She was carried about fifty yards, and when the amazed railway officials, who little dreamt they were about to have a second tragedy committed at their doors within such a short space of time, picked up the body, they found it was fearfully mangled, and that life was ex-, tinct. The body was identified as that of Mies Emily Walker, aged about 20, only daughter of the Rev. Samuel Walker, Church of England minister at Learmonth, Ballarat. It was ascertained that she came from Learmonth a few j^' weeks ago for the benefit of her health. The motive for the deed is inexplicable. Almost simultaneously with this tragedy another was being enacted on the Yarra. Two men were walking in the locality when they heard the loud screams of a woman near the river, and ran to the spot. They were informed by a little boy that a young woman had jumped into the stream and had sunk. On the bank there were lying a jacket and a black hat with a red feather and a plushcovered perfectly new silk necktie. There was nothing to be seen of the young woman, but Constable M'Leod recovered her body with grappling irons. Her name is unknown; The Rev. Joseph King, who is a former resident of Samoa, has written to the Argus as follows concerning the terrible disaster at Samoa :—" There is a land- ' locked harbor in Samoa — Pango Pango, at the island of Tutuila— in which a fleet might outride the fiercest storm, but it is seldom used because the island of Tutuila is 40 miles further west than the island of Upolu, which has been adopted as the centre of foreign commerce, and its best harbor is at Apia. It is a small halfmoon bay on the northern coast. The disaster of the wreck of so many vessels, naval and mercantile, within this harbor will be sure to bring Apia into disrepute. It should lie borne in mind that during the prevailing wind of both ' seasons the anchorage within the coral reet at Apia is safe enough. For eight' months in the year there is absolutely no danger, and even in the stormy districts destructive hurricanes are quite exceptional ; about one in ten years has been the average in the past. The storms are always from the north and north-west, and this is the quarter towards which the bay of Apia is exposed. In . the coral reef, which is a natural breakwater, there is an opening about a quarter of a mile wide in the centre of the bay, throagh which during one of these westerly gales the waves roll mountains high, while the reef, instead of being a protection, increases the danger bjr break- , ing the ocean swells into buffeting and surging billows. The " bay is partly good holding ground, but during one of these storms the strain upon the anchors is so great that they are sure to drag, and ii • they do the danger to a vessel is not the danger of stranding upon a soft sandy beach. Between the spot v . where vessels anchor and the beach, exV - tending over half the width of the bay, "-. .' there is a shelving reef, wbich at low tide i<Y/,-v,'\" Is exposed. During the storm of 1885 §-; '- '"*, - the German barqite Alaster was thrown, i--'*"' ; f'.,. through dragging her anchors, upon this g<^-%;. ; ; ;■ leef^andiitoppling over went down, hoi fpfcwS-''"-; eaptajffiand alt. the crew except one'.belog ||||||~fif®*- : r \\ -.-".:! '" - ;; ■•";: ; ■■';';

side this rock. I rowed in my boat after b Ihe storm between the miwts of the n Alaster and looked down mi.m her hull, « Ibis is the spot where the Klier struck n fortnight ago, and sunk with nearly nil c her crew, and here it was (hat tha Adler t was lifted by the mighty waves and cast s a total wreck upon the reef. To the left ( i>f this reef in the east coiner ot the bay the deep water extends nearly to the .■ beach, and it was towards this beacli that ■ the Nipsic, the Vandalia, tho Trenton, and the Olga were steered when it became inevitable that they could not bo There in comparatively shallow water, near to the spot where the beautiful Vine Sango river descending from the moun-, tuins empties itself into the bay, lie the wrecks of these vessels which had been representing in Sainoan waters the power of two great nation". The only safety for a steamer when she is caught in Apia Bay with the barometer at 29*10 and still falling is to put to sea. Whether the illfated vessels just lost attempted this early enough does not appear from the reports. The marvel is that the Calliope, having remained at anchor till the storm had reached its height, succeeded in the hnze which always prevails during a hurricane in finding her way through the opening with the waves breaking in every direction. All appearance of the ' league long roller' on the reef would be obliterated, and yet without anything certain to guide him tne gallant British captain, nothing daunted, elected to risk the dangers, and came safely through, returning to port when the storm had subsided. In this tale of sorrow there are redeeming features, and one for which we must feel thankful is that of the generous and humane conduct of the Samoans. Mataafa, with whom Germany has been at war, despatched his men to save the German officers and sailors from the destruction which threatened them, and with rare courage and self-sacrifice they plunged into the billows to save their enemies from a watery grave, some of them perishing in the attempt. Your commendation of the noble conduct of the Samoans is well-merited, and I do not think Mataafa will take any niean advantage of Germany's altered position. Although in the Berlin Conference about to be held the Samoans themselves, strangely enough, are to have no voice, they will, I have no doubt, respect the truce and so give further proof that they are, to use your own words, civilised in the best aud highest meaning of tha term."