RETURN. OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 564, 31 October 1871, Page 2

RETURN. OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

: 3VC TJ 3BL X> 3ES «. ; OF I t BISHOP PATTESON vi ..^ AND THE HEY. ME. ATKINS. I' " — % A profound sensatiou has been produced If in tho city to-day by the melancholy I II intelligence of the murder of Bishop i M Patteson and Boy. Joseph Atkin, as fl brought by the Southern Cross schooner. *f It appears that on the arrival of tho 't schooner at Nukapu, an island of the I Santa Cruz group on last Friday week, jg the 20th instant, the Bishop, accomI panied by Mr. Atkin and two native I teachers, went ashore. On reaching the 11 reef, the Bishop proceeded in a p native canoe. Immediately after, the | natives commenced firing poisoned arrows I p into the boat, wounding Mr. Atkin and I two native boys who were with him. This boat then pulled off-to tMe vessel, and shortly after Mr. Atkin-returned towards the island, to look after the Bishop. On ! arriving at the beach he found the dead body of the Bishop, the akull having been broken in, and the body stripped of almost all the clothing. Tho body having been P taken on board the vessel set sail imI mediately for Auckland and ;on the following morning the remains of Bishop ?J Patteson were consigned to the deep. | On Friday last the llev. Mr. Atkin also § died, from the wounds inflicted by the § poisoned arrows, and was oa the day I following buried at sea. On the same I day one of the native boys died from the I same cause. i It is only natural that a catastrophe so I sad and so sudden should have proIduced general and profound sorrow. &If ever a man was actuated by | 1 noble self-desying motives, that man yj \ was the Bishop of Melanesia. His de- | ! votion to the cause of missions, his | \ unwearying labours in tho service of his B s Master, and the noble catholic spirit E i which he at all times evinced for all R Ij labouring in tho same cause, by whatever m I name they might be called, have combined g I to make his name a household word in 1 I Auckland, and beloved wherever tho B i'cause of Christian missions is estoemod. g \To such a heroic life a martyr's death « | seems but a fitting close ; but notwith- ■ s standing this, tho sudden and untimely g| i end of this most devoted and learned, arid ■ ? able Missionary will, with tho dark deed ■ I of ftrromanga, be enrolled among saddest I "i events iv the history of Polynesian Mis- P Lsions. ltev. Joseph Atkin was a young | missionary of great promise, and from his r connection with this district his melancholy and painful death will produce a feeling of sincere regret among this community. He was the son of Mr. William Atkin, of Tamaki, and after having been with Bishop Patteson for a few years, was about four years ago ordained by Bishop Selwyti as a missionary. Like his venerable coadjutor, he has fallen in his

Master's service, and adds another name to tho long list of those who have died in extending the blessings of religion and civilization among the heathen. There can be little doubt that this sad event has an intimate connection with the irregularities of the labour traffic among the islands. The incident mentioned by Captain Palmer, of the Kosario, in his report on the traffic, with reference to the personation of the Bishop, will now acquire a sad, significance. It will be remembered that a person engaged in the kidnapping of: islanders having clotked himself in a long : black coat, and having on ; coloured! spectacles, landed on one of the islands, and personating the Bishop, induced the natives to come off to the slave ship, and: probably time will discover' tnat some' similar cruel delusion has preceded the; recent unhappy event at Nukapu. . {] ■