IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 180, 19 June 1869, Page 4

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

Fighting Between the Native Tribes. Seventy Killed in one Engagement. The British Flag Torn Down. By the arrival of the schooner Kate Grant, on June 3, we leaarn that serious disturbances have taken place among the natives of the Samoa Group. The quarrel arose in connection with the appointment of a king for the whole Samoa group. Most of the inhabitants are anxious to have a chief over the whole of the islands, but a dispute was engendered by the jealousy which existed between the different islands, two of which put forward a claim for one of their men to fill the office. The islands of Lavaii, Maneno, and Opulu are concerned in the dispute, and about COO men altogether are under arms. The first engagement took place at Apia, on the island of Opulu, on the Ist of April, when 70 natives were killed, the heads of all the wounded being cut off at the close of the fight. The flag of the British consul was hauled down and torn in pieces, but no Europeans were molested. The fighting was still going on when the Kate Grant left, and Mr. Williams, the consul, had despatched a letter to Sydney by a brig bound for that place, requesting the assistance of a man-of-war, The da}’’ before the schooner left, Mr. Firth, the missionary stationed at Saluafata, came in to Apia to complain of the conduct of the natives living at that station, who have assumed a most threatening atitude, and have taken up their abode in the chapel in spite of all remonstrances.

The hurricanes proved so destructive at the Fiji group, passed over the Samoa group on the 16th March, by which a saw-mill belonging to Mr. Williams was destroyed, and a number of native houses at Tonga, blown down.