MURDER OF MR H. A. MAIR.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2401, 13 December 1881, Page 3

MURDER OF MR H. A. MAIR.

[PBBBB ASSOCIATION TELES BAM.]

AUCKLAND, December 12.

A letter to Major Mair gives the following details of the murder of bis brother, H. A. Mair, of the schooner Isabella, at Santo, New Hebrides, on the 12th ult:—Mair and his mate and four Fijians of the Isabella left the vessel that morning for the purpose of recruiting labor, and the boat was in sight till half-past eleven o’clock, when it went behind some rooks. Here, as was subsequently ascertained from the survivors, two men were recruited, and a third was being arranged for when an attack was made. Mair was struck with a tomahawk on the right •boulder, but immediately shot the man who wounded him. He was then struck with a tomahawk on the other shoulder, and knocked overboard out of the boat and surrounded and killed. The mate and two Fijians were also killed. The other two Fijians were wounded, but succeeded in escaping, and swam off to the vessel, at anchor four miles off. In the evening, as Mair’s boat did not return to the Isabella, Captain Hawkins sent another boat in search of him, but it was fired at and returned to the ship. Next day the boats of the Isabella, with the assistance of the crews of three vessels in the neighborhood, went in, and the natives again fired on them, and retreated to the hills. Upon landing, the Isabella's boat woe found hauled up in the bush, and on a further search being made the mutilated remains of Mair were found. There were now four vessels in the harbor, and the crews assembled and Captain Hawkins read the burial service over the remains, which were buried in a coffin with a quantity of quicklime.