FURTHER ATTACKS ON LABOR VESSELS BY NATIVES AT FIJI.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1130, 26 September 1871, Page 2

FURTHER ATTACKS ON LABOR VESSELS BY NATIVES AT FIJI.

The Southern Cross, Sept. 18, says By the schooner Kenilworth, which arrived from Levuka on Saturday, we have Fiji papers to September 2. The Gazette of that day reports The late outrages in the Pacific, and the death by poisoned arrows of the masters of the Marion Kenny, Maria Douglass, and Swallow, all lately returned and now in port, have arrested tlie attention of the Government, who, we understand, purpose 1o issue a commission forthwith to five gentlemen to inquire into and report upon the circumstances attendant upon these deaths, and the general conduct of those engaged in the labor trade.

The Fiji Times, September 2, says; —The schooner Kate Grant arrived from a labor cruise on Thursday mornnig last, She reports the following vessels spoken by her : July 20, Helen, schooner, at New Hebrides. July 21, Isabella, three months out from Queensland, with twenty-one foreign laborers on board. This vessel reported six of her .crew wounded with arrows, four having bpen shot one day, and two the next. Sighted schooner Southern Cross. August 8, at the New Hebrides, tie brig Carl and schooner Argo, both clean. The schooner Swallow returnee) from a labor cruise on Wednesday last, bringing thirty-one laborers engaged for a term of three years. She brings the sad intelligence of the death of her master, Bradly, who was well known as master ot the Nova Scotia, trading between Rewa and Levuka. When at Leopold Island, one of the Banks Group, the vessel was almost becalmed close in to shore, and large numbers of canoes came about. The laborers on board gave the alarm that the islanders " wantee make fight," and armed themselves with bows and arrows, some of which were on board. They had hardly done so when a shower of arrows from the canoes came, one arrow entering poor Bradley's thigh. The wound \va.s immediately attended to, and a native sucked it, but the poison was too insinuating to be drawn by such simple means ; and after about thirty hours of suffering death relieved him from his pains. This is the third master of Fijian vessels lost within the last few weeks.