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"WE WILL DIE TOGETHER."

A LOVE TRAGEDY

An extraordinary love romance was disclosed .by the . evidence given in Hobarfc last week in the inquiry concerning the death of the girl Auriel Langdale, aged 17 years, who died on April 7 from strychnine poisoning. Florence Langdale, stepmother of deceased, stated that the girl had been keeping company with a youth named Walter Attwell for about 12 months, against her'wish. On April 6 the girl stayed away from home all night, and she discovered her next day in company with Attwell at the residence of his sister-in-law. N Witness took the girl home. She noticed a strangeness in her demeanour, but could elicit no-thing-from her as to the cause of the despondency. As they left the room Attwell put his face in his hands, and, falling against the wall ;> exclaimed, "They won't get her; she is gone, and I am gone, too. She has got poison, and I will poison myself, too." Upon reaching home the first thing deceased did was to kiss the baby. She then removed her hat, and began searching the dresser drawers, following which she went uownstairs. After a short interval witness heard deceased calling out. She inquired from the top of the stairs what she was saying, and Auriel replied, "Good-bye, now; I've done it. I've taken poison." Witness immediately proceeded down the stairs, and found the girl lying on the floor in the kitchen. The girl had previously threatened to take her life. Some weeks before she told witness that she and her lover agreed to drown themselves together. They proceeded to the riverside and sat there till a-quarter of an hour after midnight waiting for the moon to go down, so that they could drown themselves in the dark. The youth got up, and walked along the pier, saying, "I will go-first," but he changed his.mind. They had written letters to different people; but as their original pla-ns were not carried out, they were not posted. When asked why they did not do as they intended, deceased said, "Because the moon would not go down." A Juryman : Did they think the man in the moon would see them? Witness said that Attwell also told her that if Auriel did not marry him he would drown himself. According to other evidence, Attwell was subsequently discovered in an exhausted condition under a timber stack on a wharf, having taken strychnine. He was immediately conveyed to the hospital and successfully treated.

ing the reader the £ull benefit of his knowledge in themost,attractiv© manner. , ~. On Thursday night he gave the public an insight into the subject winch was singularly well adapted for such an occasion, and yet must have left on the minds of many the impression that in the course of the lecture he had touched a string which would vibrate for long afterwards-—that he had given those who were fortunate enough _to heair Mm am idea of how entrancing the subject of historical research cam ecome. TAgMAN CHART . It is difficult to give even a condensation of Mr McNab's informing lecture. Never over-much given to an over-plus of words, he crammed into; about a>n hour and a quarter, more •actual facts connected with the early history of New Zealand from the time of Tasman to the foundation of the colony as a colony than could be acquired by the ordinary students in months of reading, and the' "lecture proved- as interesting as <a novel. Incidentally he showed a picture of a chart of New Zealand made by one' or Tasman's officers in 1642. It has never been shown in New Zealand previously, and only arrived here a few days ago. H© got it from The Hague, after a lot of trouble. But it shows this: At that time the North and South Islands were supposed to be one, but the navigator evidently had a lingering suspicion that there was a water- j way between the two, and the chart | gives evidence of that suspicion). It; was 120 years afterwards that Cook Strait was discovered by Captain Cook.

CAPTAIN COOK INCIDENTS. Again, Mr McNag gave further details of the early 'history of the Dominion, particularly in regard to Captain Cook's early discoveries amd adventures. He showed on the screen a chart of New Zealand as first drafted by Cook. Stewart Island was then supposed to be joined to the mainland, and it was many years later that a sealing, vessel, in search for fresh "grounds," found what is now known as Foveaux Strait. . He .also showed # a picture of a medal. Whein Captain Cook set out on his expedition h© was supplied, wth a considerable number of medals, commemorative of his probable (or possible) discoveries, to distribute among the natives. Only three—or, at most, four—have been, found, amd in one case the medal was almost the only .relic of a boat's crew which was murdered by the natives. SEALING AND WHALING.

Mr McNab's account of the sealing industry in New Zealandl was particularly interesting;. He related how he found the log of a-janall vessel called the Britannia, at the Essex Institute, Salem, near Boston Massachusetts; gave a vivid description of the tremendous wealth of the sealing industry off the New Zealand coast in those days; intenspersed his narrative with an interesting story about the Endeavour (not Cook's), which was wrecked at.Dusky Sound; and, among his final remarks, referred to the oldtime whaling industry of New Zealand. It was interesting to hear hin> remark that in, 1836 (the height of the whaling industry) thea-e were at Cloudy Bay fifteen, vessels from the New England States of Amen-ioa. besides several' vessels from England, Sydney and Firanee, and he estimated, after careful calculation, that from 1835 to 1839 the value of the whale oil and whalebone taken by such vessels from New Zealand amounted to £300,000 a year. Among the last of the pictures shown was one of the. first chart- of Wellington Harbor; made by the- captain of an expedition in 1826. It is in the possession of Mr Tuxnbull, of Wellington, and, from the landsman's point of view, differs vea-y slightly i'trom the latest, maps. In this connection, Mr McNab threw a lot of odd water on the suggestion that Captain Cook at one time visited Wellington. Harbor in his ship via what is now Lyell Bay. Captain Cook anchored about two miles off the entrance, he said, and he 'never made any closer, acquaintance with Port Nicholson.

The lecture was listened to from beginning to end with the closest attention, and Mir McNab was given a hearty vote of thanks.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX19090511.2.31

Bibliographic details

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 113, 11 May 1909, Page 6

Word Count
1,102

"WE WILL DIE TOGETHER." Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 113, 11 May 1909, Page 6

"WE WILL DIE TOGETHER." Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 113, 11 May 1909, Page 6