FRIGHTFUL MASSACRE IN THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 129, 1 June 1881, Page 2

FRIGHTFUL MASSACRE IN THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.

FIVE THOUSAND WOMEN AND CHILDREN BUTCHEIiED. Auckland, Wednesday. A fire in Graham street in & house occupied by Mr Anderson of the Metropolitan Hotel did serious damage to a five roomed wooden cotUge owned by Mrs Shepherd. The Fire Brigade were promptly on the spot, and extinguished it. It was insured in the Victorian Office for £800. Reliable information has been received that the detached aqnadron will visit Auckland, being due here on the 28th June. It will remain at least fire days', and then go to Fiji. News via Fiji records a terrible massacre at Luvu Island. The London Minionarj Society had established a station there under a Sandwich Islander named Kobu. The natives at the southern part of the island became dissatisfied with the Missionary demands for copra and apostatized. Kobu preached a crusade against the heretics, and. arming his followers attacked the defenceless people. The carnage was almost incredible, five thousand women and children being ruthlessly massacred. Atrocities were then committed on the bodies, which were palled on to the beach, and combustible material was placed over tbem, which Kobu fired with his own bands. Kobu has since been taken to Honolulu to answer for his crime. Invbroabgiix, Wednesday. Two bodies, both males, came ashore at Qtara on Saturday. Tbey were nearly sude and quite unrecognisable. One of them was that of a man about 5 feet 11 inches high and of medium build. His clothing . consisted of light tweed trousers, woollen drawers, and lace-up boots recently half soled. There was no property or papers found on him. The other was that of a man of 5 feet 9 inches and rather stout boild. It wag entirely naked. Up to the present time 70 bodies in all have been recovered. Dunedin, Wednesday. Walter Hill, whose conviction for em- . bczzlement was quashed by the Appeal Court, was discharged from gaol yesterday. Mr Simpson, Captain Thompson, and Captain M'Gowan, have been considering the evidence yesterday in regard to the Tararua, and it is expected their decision will be givep to-day. Peter M'Guire is supposed to bare been drowned on Saturday eight while crossing the Molyneux at. Moa Flat. A mau named Knight has been committed for trial, cheating at "poker" at Lawrence. His counsel's contention that no such offence was known to the law wa3 over-ruled. Cbbistchukch, Wednesday. Mr Montgdtnery, M.H.R., addressed bis constituents hut night at Akaroa and received a vote of thanks and confidence. At Kirwee yesterday a woman namei Fuller gave biith to triplets, stillborn. Wellington, Wednesday. At Gear's boiling down establishment at Petone yesterday, the fcop of one of the rats, which was filled with meat, blew off destroying the roof of the building. The occurrence is attributed to the sudden contact of the steam with the cold iron. No persons weretfnjured. ,: : The ■ arguments in the caasg tefore the Appeal Court have been finished, and the Court has adjourned uifil Friday, when jjudgmept w|U be given,

The del'ga'es of the County Councils met ih:» «.p i-..* Mr Huicbinson, Mayor of W< lliuijtuti. *as elected Chairman, and Mr: P.-i£i , Citr T.-easim-r, waa appointed Secre-' 1 tary They then anj-->urned until Friday ; Napier, WedßHsday. : ~ TJ.e Diatrict echcol buiiding at K-ikoufai' *;is totally destroyed by fire i«3t. Kighi. Ii •■isi ir-nir'.! for -£4OO io" f he South Brit-eh, h j^ .ivirie; t» t»veen fourtetn ( fflcps formiug tue i^upier Insuiauca Aasuclitiou which has taken over all the Board's schools in the district.

„ A capital story is told, says the Gundagai Timts. of a recently-created magistrate, or rather of his wife, it was in an up-country town on the western road, and the J.P. had jrone for the first time to sit on the " Binch." His better-half, who understood little about his elevation, except that it was something too awful to contemplate, called out to the cook, •« Bridget, put on the pratees at wonsfc ; his majesty will be at home to dinner at 1 to the minvute 1" The Victorian Police Commission recently proceeded to Greta and Glenrowan. On arriving at Glenrowan the site of the fight with the Kellya was minutely examined, and it became a marvel to the commission how the police did cot shoot each other at tbe fight, as they were practically shooting at each other. The indiscriminate firing at the hotel when it was full of innocent people was made all the more inexplicable by the evidence given by the platelayer Reardor, who said that frequent appeals were ma^e for mercy by the prisoners, who called out and Big nulled with a white handkerchief for a truce, but were only answered by volleys from all directions. He henrd no offer from the police to the innocent occupants of the hotel to come outuniil half-past nine, though the outlaws had agreed to let them go four hours before. A prominent M.P. wag not complimented the other night when he was addressing his loving coDstituents. He asserted tbat he ■was not an idle member of tbe House, and that during the last two years he bad put " no less than one hundred and eighty-two qupßtions to the Speaker and members." '•What an ignorant old beggar you must be," cried a voice from the crowd. One of those instances of commercial horjeaty which deserve chronicling both on account of their rarity and their praiseworthiness, occurred the other day iv Sydney. Mr Fox, draper of George Street, who compounded with his creditors some years Bgo, entertained . them at a banquet at Garnpsgnoni'S; and handed over cheques io each for tbe amount of his old debt. They intend to present him with a piece of plate. G. A. Sala says of the late Frank Buckland, that if a visitor knocked at bis door it would be opened by a crocodile, while a seal came out in the area and a kangaroo looked out at the first floor window. A friend once told him he had seen Buckland rowing on the Thames at Twickenhnm There was somebidy with hiir, he said. "Who was it- a lady ?" " No, replied tbe friend; "it .was a young bear." One part of the "Royalties" lecture by Mr Archibald Forbeß must now have a mo« melancholy interest. It is that which details Mr Forbes* meeting with the late Czar, Alexander 11. It was when the enterprising English journalist bad distanced all the Russian aides-de-camp and orderlies, and had galloped back with the first news of Gourko's success at the Shipka Pass. The Czar sent for him and received him in his apartment, an inner room in a wretched Bulgarian but. Forbes found the Czar absolutely alone. They conversed long and pleasantly together. The Russian Emperor, struck with the Englishman's military knowledge, asked if he had served, and in what capacity— on the staff or as an engineer or artillery officer ? Forbes with manly frankness, said be bad never been more than a simple dragoon, thus leaving the Czar under the impression that all our private dragoons could draw military maps and descant learnedly on tactics and strategy. But in the midst of the conversation a strange incident occurred. The Czar suddenly became conscious tbat he was alone with this stranger. Forbes graphically tells us bow he read in tbe Czar's face a sudden spasm of misgiving which was passing through bis mind. What if this Englishman was an emissary of some secret society, and had thus cleverly penetrated iDto the Czir's presence to do some desperate deed ? But the hesitation was but momentary. Tbe shadow quickly passed, and the Emperor seemed by increased courtesy to apologise to his guest for the unjust suspicion.