Parliamentary.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3275, 6 August 1889, Page 2

Parliamentary.

The House resumed in committee on the Representation Bill last evening. The Colonial Secretary explained that tlio new provisions were in tlio direction of giving an advantage of 28 per cent to districts outside of cities, boroughs, and town districts containing a population of oyer 2000; the amalgamation of city electorates; and that the margin of 750 should not he used to the detriment of city electorates, The proposal for the amalgamation of city electorates was carried, In the new clause dealing with the margin, an amendment was moved by the ! Colonial Secretary giving tlio Commissioners n discretionary I margin of not exceeding 100 in arranging tlio City electoral districts, or other districts adjoining them. —Agreed to, and the clause as amended was carried. A clause providing for the abolition of plural voting was added to the Bill; also a clause providing a penalty of £SO. Progress was reported, aud the House rose at 1 o'clock,

Eketaliuna Road Board.

The Board met on Saturday, Present—Messrs Anderson, (chairman), Neilson, Bright, and Morris. The business was to settle ahout the Makakalii bridge contract. Mr Morris asked was there any answer from the solicitors re Mr Bryants sureties. The Chairman replied in the negative ami ifr |lorrjs spl lie wished it ontered on the minutes that ho protested against the manner in which Mr Bryant had been treated over the contract. He thought the course had been arbitrary. Mr King should have been questioned as to the best course to be taken before tlio Board took the matter into their own bauds. Would it not liave been better to have called a meeting of ratepayers as to the advisableness of granting a sum of money to the contractor to enable him to complete the bridge instead of running themselves into an expensive law-suit. . Mr Neilson <&id he asked Mr Bryant if lie had any offer to make to tho Board, and he said "No." Mr Bryant, who was present, said lie offered a suggestion to the Board v/hioh was not accepted. Mr King said lie remembered a bridge being washed away through insufficient staging, The flood watar destroyed the works. In that case the County Council gave the contractor a further sum to carryout the work, In the present case if tho contractor saw his way clear to complete the job, he thought it would be the best way to carry it out. Mr Bryant said he did not know if he could carry it out; he had no money to pay wages. ! lu'answer to a remark of Mr Morris, the chairman said iu tho

absence of the engineer llio Board had done the best they could, If M r Bryant'would finish the bridge, the Board would not object. Mr Bryant said lie could not do it, It seemed hard that his sureties should have to pay for the mishap. Mr King said it seemed to him thai Mr Bryant was only anxious to relieve his sureties. Ho was as certain as ho was sitting there that the bridge could not have been built for the money, and, knowing that, he had helped him nil lie could. Mr Bryant: Will tlio Board release my sureties ? The chairman: No.

Mr Bryant: Then, sir, I liand you this letter, [Lettor read,] Mr King: Trusting unfortunately to some hold that Mr Bryant thinks he lias on me re scaffolding, he makes that a handle to threaten tho Board. I made a plan for Mr Bryant, but it had nothing to do with the Board. The chairman: Now, Mr Bryant, I am going to speak plain to yra ill facts and figures. The Board has paid you £213, You told us you had paid £7O for iron and limber. There is £173 that you say you paid in wages. I find now from practical men that you have not spent half tho money in wages. What has become of tlio balance. You certainly told us you had spoilt it all. I say now that you did not. I say to you that you have gone out of the job a better man than you entered it, The Board has been lenient to you all through—far too lenient—and now you hand in a letter threatening to take proceedings against the Board. You ought to be ashamed to stand beforo us. .(Hear, hear). Do your best, we will not release your sureties. We are the servants of the ratepayers, and have to . account to thorn, and not to you, sir.

Mr King.: Mr Bryant implies that I should have inspected the scaffolding, That is not my work, What 1 am concerned iu is the main structure, to see that it is completed in a proper manner.

The following resolutions were carried That fresh tenders be called for the erection of the bridge. That Mr Bright be authorised to get the approach to the Makakahi river, Parkville ttoad, repaired at a cost not exceeding £2. That Mr Dunstall's offer to clear his road line for the sum of 10s bo sccepted. That several defaulting ratepayers be proceeded against. • MURDER OF AN ACTRESS. Extraordinary Story. Particulars with reference to what is known ns the Gospel Oak tragedy reveal an extraordinary story, William Goldsmith Hunt, a man 28 years of age, murdered a young woman with whom be lived, named Emiua Marie Green, an actress, by shooting her with a .revolver, and

afterwards committed suicide with tbe same weapon, Hunt was not a married man, but the couple had lived together as man and wife for somo time in lodgings at 123, Mansfield Road, Gospel Oak, London, Miss Green was no mere chorus girl. The supposition that she was engaged in a subordinate part iu Dorothy was a mistake.

The victim is a theatrical celebrity, Her stage namo wns Miss Mimetic Braham, a well-known burlesque actress, who will be remembered us taking the prominent part of Tressiliun in the Aveuue comic opera ol Kenilworth. Hnr earlier theatrical career included an engagement as principal boy at tho Theatre lloyai, Nottingham, and she had also tourod with Mr Charles Daly's comedy company, taking a leading part with i great success, as well as playing the lead at the Glo'oo with J. L. Shine's company, and Puss in Boots at the Grand, Since she left the Avenue • she lias filled several engagements in the provinces. Sho was an exceedingly beautiful girl, with raven black hair and great black eyes, Her figure was perfect, although sho was ' something under tho medium height, She had a fine soprano voice, aud as she sang as well in French as in English, she was specially engaged to sing at the Brussels Exhibition two i years ago. At tho Avenuo Theatro . sho had a salary of Ll2 a week. She I was a girl of pleasant, cheerful i manner, and so came by tho sobriquet ' of" Smiley." Sho was was only 24 years of age. Pier beauty, her accomplishments, and her sprightly 1 bearing brought her many admirers, among whom, a couplo of years ago, • canio Mr Goldsmith Hunt, Ho was a big, burly man, standing over Oft in height.' Ho had money, and a good deal of it, of his own, and generally lived such a life that his friends would havo nothing to do with him, He was only 28, but he looked considerably older. He was a man of violent temper, and throughout his association with Miss ue Braham liis jealousy caused frequent trouble, Marie do Braham had had two children before she mot Hunt. Since her relations with him she had another j'jild. Captain Goldsmith some three years ago came into a fortune of £OO,OOO which he dissipated on the turf. Tho feeling of pity which the affair excites is all for the young woman, for of Hunt no memories remain but those of a violent.ruflian who had suiik to the very lowest depths of what in the West End is known i\s Bohemianistn, He had run through his money and was living on his wits, and frequenty, it is stated, his wits took him to Marie do Braham when he wanted money, Marie had plenty of sources of income, To begin with, she had a regular income of £l5O a year settled on her by a man with whom she had lived. He was not tho father of her two eldest children. In his caso a brilliant career had been terminated by flight from officers of tho law, It was his successor, who closed the acquaintance when he married and settled down, and behaved honorably to the woman who had been his partner. But Marie hid other sources of income. She had an extensive acquaintance with men ol good position, to whom she could always, when she wauled it, go for money; anil it is said on tho faith of complaints she herself has mado that Hunt was not above applying this circumstance to his own advantage—and this in spite of the fact that he was madly jealous of her. Some timo ago their was a terrible scene between him and the very man who gave her £l5O a your. There was a meeting at the Supper Club in Percy-Street, where all the parties were well-known.

Hunt was a powerful fellow, .standing Gft, '2in. in height. I'ho other man was small. Ho in a tit of jealousy Hunt made a fierce attack on his rival, got line down on the ground, kuell on his cheat, and, like the great cowardly bully he v.-as, administered a terrible punishment to him, ■ With this sort of tiling continually going on, and especially as Hunt used to beat hur, and behave to her generallj with the brutality that

whs his characteristic, it is no wonder ilwt his Miitic do Bmham became anxious to put an end to tht: acquaintance. For some months slie hud been trying, to keep out of his way, and among other experiments luul been to a lawyer to try and get a legal undertaking entered into. To this, however, Hunt would not consent. Ho loved her—if the term is allowable—with all tlio passionate strength of his evil nature. She had often told her friends 6f how ho bad threatened to kill licr if she deserted him for any othor man. And there is reason to suppose that there is some other man in the case. Only a week or so ago she told Mr Blackmore, tlio well-known theatrical agent in Garrick-street, that she 'steliuvcd Hunt would kill her sooner or later, With all these facts disclosed it is not difficult to tell tlio immediate uiotivo of the crime, She lnul gone to Hunt again because, anxious as she was to he lid of hiui, she could not resist tlio force of his old power over her. Mario de Braliatn would have been alivo and well to-day if sliti bad taken an engagement that was offered hera week or two ago. Bite went to Messrsßlackmoi'o full of her presentiment of evil, and asked for an engagement that would tako her out of England, She wanted to g?t clear beyond Hunt's reach. Messrs Black - moru procured her tlio chance of an engagement in South Africa, By the time sho had the chance uf breaking loose Hunt's old influenco had reasserted itself. Sho declined tho engagement, went back to livu with-4 him, and was murdered. "Speec'i and Son?' by Sir Moral! MackenzieSir Morrell Mackenzie litis an interesting articlo in the contemporary for Juno eutitled 1 Speech and Song.' Tlu following arc five of its leading paragraphs: THE SOUND OF OUR OWN VOICES. " A speaker, and I may iay, tho singer also, should not hear his own voice too loudly. Artists and orators are very often much disappointed, anil think their voice, is not travelling well when they themselves do not bear it very distinctly, The fact is that when the speaker does not hear his voice this proves that it reachos to a distant part ot the room and tliore is very little rebound. We ■never boar our voices as other people hoar tlieiu. Our own voices are conveyed to the auditory nerve not only through the outside air, but more directly from the inside, through the Eustachian tubs, as well through the muscles and bones of the mouth and head; the singer not only beai'3 his voice from a different quarter, as we may say, hut he hears besides tho contraction of his own muscles. The fact is well illustrated by the phonognph; a listener can recognise other peoples' voices, but if be speaks into the phonogrtph, and afterwards repioduces Ha own vcico, it does not sound at all liko itself to him, because he does not hear it in the manner he is accustomed to, and because ho bears it stripped of the various accompanying sounds which are usually associated with it to his ear." EVES' CONVERSATIONAL SPEAKING SHOULD BE LEARNT. The famous throat doctor says that speakin? does not " come by nature." 11 Speaking, even of that most slipshod kind which is mostly used in ordinary conversation is an art and as such has to be kurnet', often with much labour, l'lio complicated muscular actions, tlio nice, nervousg adjustments, the combination of into 0110 harmonions effort directed to a particular ond, and finally the mastery of all these movements till they can be produced automatically without a direct and continuous exercise of will power, fora a complex process which takes years to ljarn, and which, by many, is even then very imperfectly acquired. Good speaking is a higher dovclopment of the art, which bears tho same relation to speech as ordinarily that tho horsemanship of an Arcbor or a Gannon bears to the performance of a costermonger's boy on the paternal donkey." " PUBLIC SPEAKING IS AN ATHLETIC FEAT."

" I£ tho voice is properly used the throat hardly over suffers, but wrong production is a fertile sourco of discomfort and even disease in that region, It should be cloarly understood that public speaking, in addition to i ( s intellectual aspocta, is a physical porformunco whijjjj requires" wind" and " muscle" and ' tho perfect management of ono's bodily resources, liko any other athlotic feat. To attempt to speak ill public without uuy previous training is like trying to climb tho Matterhorn without preparation, and is just ascertain to end in failure, if not disaster." Kilt MOIUiLIi IS AGAINST CIGARETTES AND

ALCOHOL. Tobacco, alcohol and fiery condiments of all kinds are best avoided by those who have to speak much, or at least they should be used in strict moderation, I feci bound to warn speakers addicted to tho " herb necotian" against cigarettes. The white spots on the tongue and of tho cheeks, known as patches," are boliovcd by some doctors \ with special experience to lie tnoro common in devotees of the cigarette than in other smokers ; this unhealthy condition of tho mouth may not only make speaking troublesome, or even painful, but it is proved to be a pre-disposing cause of cancer, All fiery or pungent foods, condiments, or drinks tend tocauso congestion of tho throat, and if this disease becomes chronic it may lead to impairment, if not complete loss of voice,

HE LAUGHS AT THE " MSTEKIOUS POSSETS AND DRAUGHTS." Sir Morel! lias a fling alike, at Mr Gladstone's egg and sherry and tlio Iron Chancellor's brandy'*#? seltzer. " supposed miraculous virtues of tlio mysterious possets and draughts on ivliicli sonic oralors piii their faith exist," lie says, "mainly in the imagination ot those who use tliem ; at best they do nothing more than lubricato the joints of the vocal machine so as to makeit work smoothly This is just as well done by means flffi glass af plain water.

were met with nbovo 4000 ft. Hir William left Port Moresby on the l'Jtli April in nn open boat, wiih « party, fourteen, for the Vanupa river, thirty miles westward, They arrived thero safely, ami pushed the lout «|i the river for eight days. They encountered many dilliculties in crossing tlie rapids uud drugging the bout over tho rooks. It was not until the 17 th May that tho party, of which oniv four too whiles, made a start after Hotting additional provisions from iPort Moresby, They crossed Mount ami at a height of 1700 ft Mouut Guubar. The saw the lirst native houso at Goodwin's Village Mount Musgnivc. They then de-: scendud Mo'iat Musgrave, which is I oyer 7000 ft Jigli, to tho Vanupa river, mounted the Knatslbrd range over rough country, and followed a Spur leading westward for three days, I'liey descended tho spur and begun tho ascent of Mount Owen Stanley on the Bth, reaching the top on the 11th. On tho 12th June they returned to Mount Musgrave, On tho 16th all hands started homewards. The country traversed by the purty was very mountainous. No table laud was discovered. The geological formation of the country was mainly decomposed slate, granite, and quartz. Thero was no sign of gold. The climate to a height of 8000 ft wan moist, abovo that dry and bracing. In tho higher altitudes mtives wcro met with on two occasions only. They were extremely friendly but superstitious. The men who stout and well built with slioit flgs.' Women were never seen. Thecultivation paddocks were fenced in, and sweet potatoes, yams, sugar' cane and tobacco were plentiful. The natives wero devoid of warlike implements. Particular attention wa» paid to tho head dresses, which were wado of shells procured from the eastern coast of German New Guinea, showing friendly communication across the Owen Stanley Range. The Governor collected many specimens of new plaut-s, amongst others some beautiful yellow rhododendrons all of | which have been forwarded to Baron von Mueller. A great number of new grasses were discovered in large patches on Mount Victoria. Mr Goodwin secured scverul new birds and one animal something like a native bear, but with a long tail, the color being a dusky brown. It was black in the extremities, and tho extreme length was 3ft Gin tho tail being Ift Oin. It has five claws on tho front feet and hind feet; the tail is bushy, and it is estimated j&f-wcigh Wlbs, The birds in the "?owor altitudes are the somo as those before seen, except a new paradise bird similar to ilio great opinachus. The party procured a female of tho astrachla stcphania, the only male bird of that, species being in the museum at Berlin. Tho Governor procured soveral new small birds on Mount Victoria. Amongst the birds are some identical with the English lark. Unfortunately, they were eaten by one of the Polynesians, A few entomological specimens were obtained, amongst which were milk white busterfiies. Many were seen, hut only a few were captured.