THE PLUTO MASSACRE.

Evening Star, Issue 3459, 24 March 1874, Page 3

THE PLUTO MASSACRE.

' At J h ,° cental criminal court, Sydney, on ? G xu / i hj ultimo, Waiua and Swatoa, two •f'OjitnSpa Islanders, were indicted for bavins on the 20th May, 1873, murdered Thomas Hart, master of the Pluto. , John.Collins, a seaman on board the vessel, gave evidence respecting the wreck bf the Pluto oWEwen Island, to the south-west of Caledonia,' and the arrival of a crew in a bo*t; at the, Mary island. The surf washed 1 the boat 'ashore and several natives.then-waded dut'<to it. The two prisoners wer;e, nmong. them/, and they all set about plundering the boat. The mate had previously been shot in the heart by an arrow, and had fallen overboard. One of the natives—not either of the prisoners—stripped the captain and Collins*! and another native, who died while beingbrought up in the Dido, struck the captain on the head with his tomahawk. The captain fell upon the deck and died, in about threequarters of an hour afterwards! He r had tvyo tomahawk wounds in his back, besides the one on his head, and had several arrows in his body. His left eye r a -|P , eut. The .other seaman, whose [name was 1 Stripe, killed himself to avoid-faliing into the hand's of the natives. r h° xu a on shoe and lived there tor three.months and a half, until the Dido -I- two prisoners Were., on:.bogrd r captain was killed; xoThe, .prisoners cut the body of the captain up after he was dead. I hey had previously struck him with arrows shore, . :Mr Windeyer submitted that the court .had no jurisdiction ia the W as the, alleged offence, had beett commuted by foreigner* in a for' ign country, ; , and they , were therefore ~ nfl? amenable to the law of another eohntry It was not committed on board. of a British "P.jp.on the high seas as the. bp*t w&s ‘not-^a 1 British ship'* in ’‘the pro'-’ per acceptation of the term, and it T aß i °V shor V and not. on the high Jft 1 H6nor '■ sSid he 1 of^bpi&on mt the f preßeoutibh‘ must fail.- There nd; authority Whibh had decided that, a feat ; was a ship, and t he was of opinion 'that a 1 judge- should not extenfl the law *t k'aid' hitherto' been earned; 1 w m o bete * W registered, and hatf a T d , !r ®“ a,i y £Prto n -a' voyage, itfraigHfc’ then be l\eld to be aehip r but such was’not the case. • He held that the prosecution must fail because the boat at the time of the ■fiU&e captain was, on shore t cn the island, and was in a foreign country, and the not therefore within the juris-dictidip-of -nnS Other country. Theilry.'' thepj- -by his Honor’s direction, found s' verdict ot and the prisoners were! ordered tp : be, discharged.