CORRESPONDENCE.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 138, 22 May 1880, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

We arc always willing to give insertion to letters of explanation or tutorost, but we wish it to be distinctly understood that wo do not endorse the opinions expressed, or language used, hv our correspondents. Our ideas nf passing events will In- found in o\ir local or editorial columns. TO THE KDITOR OF THKSAMOA TIMKK. SIR, —We have tho melancholy duty of informing you of the decease of an old resident of Samoa, some account of wjom, as lie was widely known, will doubtless he read with interest by all foreigners irt Samoa. Early on Sunday morning last, at tho age of sevontv. Dr. Carter, formerly of Apia, hut for many years resident in Ttituila, passed awav. Dr. Carter was born in January 1880, at Portsea. His father was an officer on a British ship of war, and .seems at his death to have left his family in a very comfortable position. He had two sisters, both of whom married, but he thought no relatives were living of late years. He was educated at Greenwich school. after which, being designed for the medical profession, he Was apprenticed to the head surgeon of the convict training ship thou stationed at. Portsea. He afterwards proceeded to the Edinburgh University and entered in the medical department. There ho staved thr.-o years, and there, unfortunately, the passion for strong drink fir?f. took possession of him, which hurried him downwards to irretrievable ruin. A vc&r at Paris completed i:''s education! Fie ttien obtnine : a po-.ili .n on board a vessel bound for Australia. From there he cannon to Tahiti in the Suit -inn. and

simianes. A year sin. i Fe:iire|v gone when he got n chance to Samoa', and Tortile lirst tiinu mado his appearance in Apia. One voyage to America which involved, Ik; sahl, an absence of font- years, is tho only time he over again left Samoa. Cut. In; gradually sunk from hail to worse, till lit? leached the very lowest depth of degradation. Eighteen years ago he was induced to acc ol npanv Mr. Ripley to Tutiula, who ofr 3rf .,i in mako „ |, om - e f nr him, where, fre 0 f roln j no temptation to drink, it, was conceived the last hope of reformation might he afforded him. Unhappily it failed. Other fwtiiies of his character made it, intolerable t.o retain him in any household, and for mainyears he has | JPOn living a vagrant and abandoned life, , rn ing the round first of foreigners then of natives, tasking the patience of ~11 alike. I.nt of all alike it. may ho pjiM tltnt every kindness and cinsidcration was shown", e.verv effort .put forth to make his declining days hnppy and oomfortahle. His ruling passion was literally strong in death, for only n few days ago he did everything he could to induce a captain of n vessel, who called upon him, to supply hi,,, with srin. His rofmomentofmannpr.olfiganccof language, and no small sham of intellect,only made the contrast greater with his wasted frame, ns hare-footed, with smudged hat. and worn-out, ragged clothes, he pared wearily along. Surely the world has few parallels to such a life. "When we think of what ho might have heen, n-.l ..hat ho heeame • when wo look on this picture and on that, and rememher from how f;reat a height to how low a depth he fell, and remember, too, that whisky, Scotch toddy, did it nil, was the first wrong step—the prelude to his life of misery—he may well stand for a lesson to all young men to beware of that which while it, haß the fatal fascination, (he fascination of the serpent's eve soon gives place to the serpent's hito'and the. adder's sling. Dr. Carter died lostSiinday morning, May 2, under the cure of jfr. llunkin, and was hurled in his ground tho evening of (lie same day. All tho foretell residents were present, and tho English service wn.s rend over his grave hy the foreign missionary.-- 1 nm, cce., Cham. Pmi.LlM. I/wrin, Tutiula, Mav 4th, 1880,