THE LATE MR EDWIN BAINBRIDGE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XII, Issue 1740, 22 June 1886, Page 2

THE LATE MR EDWIN BAINBRIDGE.

HIS LAST WOBDS. (UNITED PBEBS ASSOCIATION. ) I «.3 . • Rotoboa^ Friday. The following is the cojn* pf fae statement written by Mr Edwin Bainbridtre. fust before he was killed by the falling of the Rowmahana Hotel, at Te Wairoa, daring thelyoloanic eruption m the district. As Jbia been stated, he was engarod m; writing m one of the r.£oms of the hotel a few moments before he was interropted,by the .terrible critulie was momentarily expecting. Is is .evident that the document was written with wonderful composure, and by a man prepared for -tije death which he believed was so near him. The- punctaation is attended to,; the "fs?' crossed, the •M's" dotted, tod the handwriting firm and clear. The docu. ment is as follows, with the heading as we'givefit :—^ ; - " ■'• y-i ■_■, "WRITTEN BY BDiHs BAINBlili>G«/ OP H*W- « '?♦-' ■.-.' CA3TI.B-ON-TYHB, ENGLAND. fc'This is the moat awful moment of. my life. I cannot tell when- 1 may be c.Uled upon to meet my God. lam thankful that I find His streßgth tut-, ficient fornrtu ; We are under.iieaTjr falls of vol:canoes — -';■%?• \\- \ •■'>'■ '•"'.,.•' »'- ; ' ■ The ending^ of the last word is a little undecided, and 'it may .oossibly.. have ibeen .meant for /'volcanic.'.' At this ;ppiut Mr Bambridge was evidently interrupted. The half- quire, of/ foreign note paper, on the first page, of which he had commenced to write, was- evidently hastily folded and placed m the . writing 'portfolio, neither sealed nor addressed. The desk contained the usual stationery, private letter^' mbarning' cards of ' bis deceased' brother and sister, n*; 'letfer which he had partly written, evidently for the outgoing mail, and other miscellaneous articles. . The deskhad of coarse been much soiled with the mud 'and felling debris, and the documents within* it are a good deal discolored. These arein the possession of his friend, Mt MeArthur, who intends to have them forwarded to Mr Bambridge'* relatives m England. The passage of Scripture which Mr Bainbridee read.. was that, telling of the salvation of the thief on the Gross, and he remarked that it showed all might be saved, even at the last moment. "" / : The aFove^ statement Mr B&inbridge had not addressed. to any particular person. It was evidently only intended to . be a record of the terrible catastrophe, and *o supply an account of the few last moments of ius life. His friend/Mr McArthur, arrived at Rotoraa on Saturday niebt,iußtlto view the body and to male aU necessary arrangements about the funeral. A wreath of flo^eri^and « floralcross were placed on'his coffin. Poor Bainbndge Was a ecion iOf a large and enterprising family m the North of England. About 300 hands were em- , ployed m the Leeds factory of the Bain-bridge-firm, and at the warehouse m Newcastle on-Tynt also about 300. Young Bainbridge spoke with great affeotion ;of his father and mother, who died' very suddenly when he was about five years old. The father died m a few hours from typhoid fever ; the mother about four months afterwards of grief. Reference has previously been made to the death ef bis brother by; a gim accident, when he was twenty years of age, and to his sister's death ateighteeen, caused by grief through the loss of her brother. The deceased young gentleman had charming, manners, with the set-up Snd manly style which is characteristic of a thoroughly manly Engliahnian. He at once became a great favourite wherever he went. He was a youth of much promise thus lost to a world which needs such men as he, aad may need them .more:, than ever.. A. keen, sportsman, a good rider, and a • devout Christian, he has gone to the better land. One cannot' deplore him except for the world's sake and that of his fiunily.— JAuoldand SeraW r : ; ' T" The party forming the RotomahiMia expedition wovldv never have reached Botoinahana after crossing the. mad glaoier and getting to a bed of clinkers covered with a thick layer of ash, but f ©r. Mcßm's self-devotion m stripping off his shirt, notwitbstaDdiog ' the bard frost, and forming sand«ls of it for the bare feet of the party. On the^ return journey, one of the party, Mr Hean, was revived at internals with stimulants, or he ?ould not have got through/ a email flask for the party being carried for emergencies* Mr Mcßae; io .falling back on Rotorua, made for a each* ■above Kaittraria, where, m one of hit journeys from Wairoa since the; crop* tion.he had buried a keg of whilkey m the mud for cases of emergency^ Here the party got revivers for the" remaiuder of the journey. It was christened " McRae'S blind," and they declare saved a life. "■/•;';■':/■,: ■■ .-■■ ■ i K ■ '■ In the Patrenga Gorge, at the head of the water-race of the Rototua waterworks, a boiling spring has started underneath a block of rock on the eastern side of the river, and is boiling^with cpnjiderable violence^ , The water of -the river is slightly discolored and whit* ■ish.. ••■"--..-..:.. -..■■-.■:,■ ; - : -". { Mr McSae has received a telegram from Auckland stating that hit case respecting the insurance of the Wairoa Hotel, will be considered at si meeting of the directors of the Unioa, Ipturanc* Company, though possibly ?W concessions will be made for the loss by vol-, eanic eruption as fo/rainc a precedent. (The residents here sympathise with Mr Mcßaein his lussts, and wbold'be'glad to see some consideration extended to bim } : pot as a matter of right— for as a dry matter of fact the: insurance is against I it— but as a matter of grace iv ricofni-' tion of the public service he has render* I cd. Mr Mcßae despatched a party of | men to-day with ten horses, jacks, 1 falls, and tackle to extricate the waggon and I dray embedded at the fl»t at Tikitapu I Lake. They succeeded m getting the dray ont, but failed iv removing the waggon. The party despair new of getting it out, and state that the track' to Wairoa round the Lake m now certain death, to anyone attempting, it. ,• A Maori woman, wife of -Eru, and. ont *oi jthe T»}horaufji, saryi-yprs, > £jip b died from th» nervous sfiock and' ex*r exposure on the morningof ihe eruption}' She had been previously m;. Bo^uft;, Hospital for chest complaint Sonic half -dozen others are ill from the shock. One fot an arm broken by a stone falling m the eruption. The women sired: from Waitanga and old R&uri are recovering at Whakarewarewa, as is old Tuhoto at the Qovt rament ssnatorium. A party of Te Hen Hen's people, 30 m number, arrived m the afternoon from Taupo, to tangi over the dead at Wairoa Maura, and Atika. The Taupo Natives offered theTuhorangi survivors land; at Paeroa. TeKepa replied that Paeroa' was m the line of vo'canic action froni. Tooftriro to White lilftod. He bid ' been'hit^>nce, and he did cot want to be bit again. ■ ■/.%!' '.