NEW CALEDONIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 451, 28 February 1857, Page 4

NEW CALEDONIA.

- (From the ' Empire,' Feb. 4.) - MASSACEES BY THE NATIVES. INSECURITY OF THE FBENCH . SETTLEMEN I. By the arrival of the schooner Black Bog yesterday, we have intelligence from New Cale' donia to the 26th of November, which is of a veiy painful and melancholy nature. About seven miles from Port au France, Mons. Berard, a partner in the ■ firm of Vial .D'Aram, Milliere, and Co., of this city, had established a sugar plantation, at a place called Morari. 'We are not informed how long this establishment had' been in existence, but it appears that it was in full working efficiency, and that a large number of persons were employed upon it. Many ef the natives, it, would seem, were constantly received by the .unsuspecting planters on the most fnendly terms. How far this good feeling was warranted will be seen by the following record of horrors. On the 19th of January one of Mr. Berard's servants was surprised by one of these " friendly" natives, and killed on the spot with a tomahawk. Two New Caledonians hastened to M Berard, and informed him, of what had hap pened; that gentleman immediately set out to ascertain the truth of the report; but on his way he was met by a native chief, who had been living on the most friendly relations to him for some time past, dining with him' nearly every day, and by this chief he was shot dead. The work of blood. appears to have now spread throughout the plantation, ■ for the bodies of several peisons in the service of M. Berard were subsequently found, all of whom had been murdered. The names of the victims are Laurent, Senechal, Queret, Boterel, Jean, Louis, Michel, and Magastre (two brothers). Another brother of the last-named unfortunate men, being on his way from the port to Morari,escaped. A number of Sandwich Islanders, who were at work on M. Berard's plantation, more than twelve, it is said, were also ruthlessly murdered. The full particulars of the outrages committed do not, however, seem to have transpired. ■ Much dissatisfaction is expressed by the friends of the sufferers that' a French frigate, with two hundred men on board, should have left New Caledonia when the island was known to be in a state highly dangerous to the French residents, and it is demanded that: the naval officer in command shall afford some statement in justification of leaving the colonists of New Caledonia in a state so utterly unprotected. On the 12th of Jannary a fearful gale visited the island, destroying houses, tearing trees up by the roots, and doing other serious damage to the property. Information had reached Port au France, that the wreck of a large vessel had been seen at Kanala, supposed to be the French corvette Arrois, expected to arrive from Tahiti.