NEW CALEDONIA.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 172, 24 April 1869, Page 6

NEW CALEDONIA.

Tun news from Noumea is of a very startling character, and the country there seems to be in pretty much the same pickle, as far as the natives arc concerned, as our own Province. It appears that four Europeans and a loyal native were massacred in a boat, at a coast settlement, and subsequently cooked and eaten. The French, howt ver, make no bones about these matters, and are in the habit of going the best way to work to settle the difficulty, and in this instance fifteen natives were at once seized and decapitated in the presence of the entire population of Noumea. Since then further murders have been reported, and ten more natives have been executed. The Government has ordered in all outlying settlers, and all the coasting vessels arc collectingin Noumea. Just before the Aspasia sailed, one of the French meu-of-war left the harbour, but her destination was unknown. The weather at Noumer, from the 17th to the 22nd of January, was extremely warm and sultry, and the inhabitants were fully prepared for a hurricane. There were two French men-of-war in port when the Aspasia sailed.—Auckland Herald. The Challenge, from New Caledonia, is from that part of the Island occupied by a large force of French troops engaged in punishing the rebel natives for atrocities committed on French inhabitants. Gondo, the celebrated fighting chief, had been shot,

.and his head brought into the Wygatta settlement, and the troc’;s were pursuing the natives with activity. On one occasion sixteen French soldiers got surrounded on a hill by the hostile tribes, and were completely cut off from communication with the main body, and were kept in this state for forty-eight hours, when the natives set fire to the bush on all sides for tire purpose of burning them out, but the detachment cut their way through, and escaped with the loss of only two, who were burnt. The Challenge made the run to the island in five days. —Sydney Morning Herald.