PUNISHING SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1197, 6 February 1885, Page 3

PUNISHING SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS.

The la«t New Caledonian papers received report the return of the Cher from the New Hebrides, where summary vengeance has been inflicted on the Natives concerned in tho mai-sacre at Mallicolo, or Port Stanley. At five o’clock in the morning of the J3th December that vessel reache < the islands, and took up her position between Ourikiki —whieh had been previously bombarded by the Ditch iffauit—and Mallicolo. Commandant Lafon, landed twentytwo Kanakas, .•rmed with Snidei rifle-, and a few marines, on Uuiikiki. They found the island deserted, and proceeded to cut down the cocoanut pdais, to fire the tents of the Natives, and to apply the torch to the bush in several places, so that there was nothing left hut a little scrub when the expedition returned to the Cher. The vessel next preceded fo Aeromhoa, which is only separated from tho other island by a narrow channel. The Natives, who had witnessed the pillage of Ourikiki, and were terr>r stricken by the ebast sen.eut inflicted on their neighbours, e hub down to the beach in crowds imploring mercy. The commandant summoned t e chiefs on b -ard, and insisted on their giving up the murderers of Joe Booth. A Native conducted the commander of the Cher to Touru, on the mainland, and pointed out six men as the culprits they were identified by a K tnak i who had witnessed ihe murder, wore placed in irons, and brought on to Noumea. The Natives of Toutu who had come on board were warned no to quit the vessel without permission, out some of them leaped overboard, and four if the fugitives were shot. These reprisals we are told, have pro ucs-l a profound impression upon the minds of the Natives, who will know henceforth that a terrible retribution will overtake them in the event of their committing any outrages upon white men in the New Hebrides.