The Globe. TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 7, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 386, 7 September 1875, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 7, 1875.

The murder of Commodore Good enough, and the news ot the state o native feeling in the groups of islands to the westward of the Fiji group, will doubtless cause the mosquito fleet of schooners built in Sydney for Her Majesty’s Navy to be actively employed for some time to come. The natives in these western groups of islands differ very essentially from the inhabitants of the Fijis. They are as a rule fierce and revengeful, and they have also the characteristic of not being afraid to venture their lives in attempting to wreak their anger on white men, in which respect they contrast strongly with Fijians who are not troubled with much courage in the event of a quarrel, unless they have an overwhelming majority of numbers. The employers of “ imported labour,” as it was euphemistically termed, were well aware of this, and in many cases trusted to their men from Tanna, or other of the western islands, in the case of an attack by unfriendly fijians, with a confidence that was seldom misplaced. But with the new order of things in Fiji the procuring of Solomon or Tanna islanders, for the purpose of working the plantations in the group, will become impossible. It may be that stringent rules will be enforced, and that a limited number of men will he procured from these sources, but we are inclined to think that such a number would be too small for the labour requirements of the planters, and that they will have to look to India or China for the hands that are necessary. Now that the Fiji Islands are under , the British flag there should be no difficulty in obtaining, from either of the sources we have mentioned, a stream of immigrants who would be capable of performing plantation work under a tropical sun. In this case the islands that have suffered for some years from the visits of the labour vessels, will not be so much frequented, and if the men from those parts who are yet in Fiji are returned, tfie temper of the islanders may perhaps bo calmed, and a certain amount of confidence imparted to them. But it will take a long time to efface the memories of the kidnapping days, and every precaution will have to ho used in any communication between white men and the inhabitants of Santa Cruz and other islands near. Valuable lives have been lost, and the deaths of Bishop Fatteson and Commodore Goodeuough cannot be forgotten. The fact that the poison used by the natives on their arrows appears to defy the specifics of European doctors, makes intercourse withtheseislandersmoredangerousthan in any other of the South Seas. If it is absolutely necessary that boats’ crews should go ashore in these groups, it is surely not necessary that their arras should be carefully left in the boat. The natives know as well as possible the meaning of a rifle or a revolver, and that the men who have these arms can use them if r quired. It may be urg< d rl-.at an ostentation* manner of showing these weapons would perhaps irritate the natives and provoke an attack, but we believe the

display of an ability to punish such an attack, combined with a conciliatory manner on the part of the officers in charge, would be the safest policy in the end. We do not believe in the system of venturing among natives, that are known to be hostile to white men, in an entirely unarmed condition.