FIJI ISLANDS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4387, 12 April 1875, Page 3

FIJI ISLANDS.

The Star of the South, from Fiji, reports fearful mortality from measles among the natives. They are paralysed, and refuse to assist each other. All the head chiefs are dead. Three hundred natives died in the Island of Ovalau alone, and in the other islands a greater number. The disease, which is always followed by dysentery, has assumed a form of plague. Several native towns are depopulated. At one the bodies lay for days uncovered, and were mangled by pigs. The natives are only burying the bodies a few inches below the surface, and the late rains have washed the soil off. The smell is fearful. In the Island of Anquhu a great many natives are reported lying dead, as no one will bury them. Trade is at a standstill The Star of the South returns with but little cargo, no one being about to take it out of store and put it aboard. The Bum and Sugar Company are erecting machinery. Messrs. Brodijack and Evans have been committed for trial for manslaughter, natives having died through their neglect. The importation of cattle into Fiji has been considerable of late, and it is surprising howyoung stock thrive and put on flesh here. Messrs. Henney, Evans, and others have now large runs plentifully stocked, and evince a desirs to still continue importing.