THE CHATHAM ISLANDS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4253, 6 November 1874, Page 3

THE CHATHAM ISLANDS.

(From a Correspondent of the llawlats Bay Jlcral«£) , Amongst the passengers per Magellan Cloud are nine natives, formerly residents on the island, and who are now on a temporary visit to relatives. In consequence of the wreck of the Ocean Wave at Oamaru, in -May last, and the delay thereby occasioned, the,utmost anxiety has been aroused as to the fate of the vessel in question, and the numerous passengers expected to arrive by her. Stores were also quite exhausted ; neither tea, flour, nor sugar were obtainable ; the arrival of the Magellan Cloud at an opportune moment was therefore a double source of rejoicing, inasmuch as it dispelled most painful apprehensions, and at the same time furnished the inhabitants with the most important necessaries of life. A melancholy accident occurred on the 26th of June last, resulting in the death of a Maori named Makara. On that day four persons—Pomani and wife (Maoris) and Pikapouri and Makara (Morioris) —had been eeling on the lagoon, and having taken an unusual quantity of eels, loaded an old lumbering canoe, which lay at Patiki, and, with their prize, paddled away for the Moriori settlement of Ilangatira, distant, some miles. On that morning, a day intensely cold, the wind at intervals blew fiercely in gusts from the southward. After progressing a few miles the lagoon became fearfully agitated ; eventually the canoe capsized, and the occupants were of course immersed in the water, where they struggled long and desperately for life. After almost superhuman exertions they succeeded in righting the canoe and getting into it, and drifted slowly away to the nearest available land —AVairu—which they reached all thoroughly exhausted and benumbed with cold. Pikapouri, however, managed to start off for a recent camping spot to procure a firestick, but ere his return Makara was uo more ; he died from cold. On the 7th of August last a Maori of rather advanced age, named Tana, who had been residing at Torotoro, a settlement nine miles from Waitangi, was found dead in the garden ; in fact, death seemed to hayo overtaken him in the midst of his labor. The Chatham Island winter so far has not been a severe one, that is, we have experienced nothing of cold weather ; but gales we have had in quick succession from every point of the compass. The Morioris of the Manukau settlement are by no means peaceable citizens. Scarcely a weak passes without something like a quarrel or unimportant dispute. A few weeks since, Apieta demolished Tapu's fence, and, by way

of retaliation, Tapu destroyed the fence of an innocent person (Piripi)~ This was the occasion, therefore, of an action—Piripi v. Tapu—in which the defendant was mulcted in damages, £2 16s. Out of this sprung another action—Tapu v. Apieta, In this case also the defendant was mulcted in a similar amount.