New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, AUGUST 31.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4507, 31 August 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, AUGUST 31.

Commodore Goodenough has ended a life full of honor and usefulness in a not inglorious way. He has fallen a victim to the innate savagery and treacherous character of the natives of Santa Cruz, one of the Melanesian islands, where also Bishop Patteson was butchered in 1871. But he fell in the humane, if not altogether wise endeavor, of inducing the islanders to trade in a friendly spirit with Europeans. And as in the case of Bishop Patteson, Captain Goodenough’s life was not the only one sacrificed on the altar of humane philanthropy. Other men besides the chief on this occasion also fell victims to their savage and irresponsible assailants ; and there will be mourning in the lowly homes of the common seamen, on the news reaching England, as well as in those abodes of affluence where Captain Goodenough was known and valued.

Kovr, we think that this outrage is altogather of too serious a character to be overlooked. If the South Sea Islanders get it into their heads that they may kill tho captain of an English man-of-war and his guard, and incur no risk of reprisals, the sooner trading vessels are withdrawn from those seas the better will it be for all parties. The lives of civilised men would not then be at the mercy of a set of wretches who have no code of honor to which an appeal might be made, and who are altogether innocent of even a perception of moral obligations—about the only particle of innocence of which they can boast. We may be told, as wo were when Bishop Patteson was butchered, that it was done in retaliation for previous outrages committed by crews of trading vessels but this allegation wo take leave very seriously to doubt. Tho Imperial cruisers have been far too vigilant and numerous

of late to render possible the- commission of any outrage by white men upon any of the islanders without the occurrence becoming known ; but it is a fact, that since the British cruizers have taken to the suppression of “ the slave trade,” as it has sometimes been called, (and aptly so in several instances,) outrages by natives upon Europeans have become much more numerous. Under the protection of the British flag, the islanders have made free with the lives of British subjects ; and now, their chief protector is himself butchered within range of his guns, and in full sight of his ship. Thus it is that the islanders become bold by reason of impunity, and commit an act of wanton slaughter which must shock their most enthusiastic admirers.

Taken, therefore, on the lowest ground, that of expediency, wo think the savage perpetrators of this most unprovoked massacre should be taught, by the only method they understand, that they cannot take the lives of strangers without suffering for it. It would be at once impolitic, and a crime against civilisation, which is pushing out its agents among the island groups of the South Seas, to permit this outrage to pass unavenged. To do so would be to invite the perpetration of similar crimes. Let us not be misunderstood. We do not advocate, or suggest, an indiscriminate slaughter of the islanders. But what we do suggest, and what wo think ought to be done, is to despatch a sufficient force to the island to compel the natives to assemble in a body, and after demanding the surrender of all concerned in the massacre, explain to the others the enormity of the crime and the necessity for expiating it by the lives of the guilty parties. Then let the murderers be hanged in sight of their friends as a warning to them for the future. Interpreters could readily be obtained, and witnesses from neighbouring islets, if present, would be useful in disseminating the news. There would be no appearance of haste or revenge in such a procedure ; and the natives should be told that for every white man slaughtered by them they would be similarly punished. But if that sloppy kind of sentimental morality, which is the fashion nowadays, be permitted to override the plain dictates of duty and humanity, then, in the name of common sense, let Great Britain withdraw her cruisers, and let every European go forth to trade, if the spirit of adventure or necessity so lead him, with his life in his hands, to defend it, if defence be possible, or avenge those of his race who have fallen victims to that lust of blood which is characteristic of all savage people. When we consider the course adopted towards the aborigines in Australia and New Zealand, and contrast it with the culpable levity of our relations towards other savage tribes in the Pacific Islands, we cannot help thinking that there has been too much severity in the one case, and too little of it in the other. Although we would not insult our Maori fellow subjects by speaking of them in the same breath with the wretched specimens of humanity to be found in the Santa Cruz group, yet it is a fact that we made the Maoris amenable to our criminal code when they were quite as uncivilised as the latter are now, so far as intercourse with Europeans can possibly civilise them. Indeed, the balance would be found to be against the Maoris were the circumstances of the two races fairly inquired into ; yet notwithstanding this, we compelled the Maoris to submit themselves to law, and at a very early date enforced the extreme penalty of the law, in a case in which, according to native usage, it might have been compensated for by fine. The result of this severe discipline has been beneficial to the Maori people, and it has also done good to the Europeans. There is no race bitterness. The law stands between them. If an offence be committed, the law decides it ; if life be taken, the law is the avenger of blood. It is this kind of discipline which must be adopted towards the inhabitants of Melanesia. They are a despicable and degraded race, and with every respect for the enthusiastic men who have faith in elevating them in the social scale, we do not believe it possible. It is a wild daydream, in the pursuit of which human lives have been already lost worth ten thousand times more to manldnd than the sum total of all the savage islanders on whom their splendid talents and noble self-sacrifice were utterly wasted. In writing thus, we have no doubt we shall shock very many well-meaning people, who have been taught to regard a naked and unclean savage as a special object on which to lavish all the affections of the human heart. And the more savage and unclean he is, all the more an object, of love and affection he must or should be. We dare say we shall shock and offend many such simple-minded people, but we cannot help it. We cannot agree with them in the least. We think their sympathy wasted, which might bear fruit a hundredfold if directed towards reclaiming the waifs and strays of society around them. The naked and hungry little savages who are growing up to maturity in every large town and hamlet in the country, if only laid hold of in time and cared for, would take their places in the ranks of the virtuous and well-doing, instead of swelling the criminal aiany, and helping to drag down and debase society. The case is altogether different with the bulk of the island savages, for whose salvation Bishop Patteson and Commodore Goodenough have been sacrificed. They are simply irreclaimable. Their destiny, whatever it may be, is not to ascend in the social scale by any method that has hitherto been tried ; and it is therefore the duty of those charged with the police of the southern seas, to do justice tempered with mercy. Had Sir Julius Vogel’s splendid scheme of a South Sea Dominion, with New Zealand at its head, been carried into effect, it would have been the duty of this Government to take steps to avenge the death of Captain Goodenough and his men ; but this duty now devolves upon Sir A. Gordon, Governor of Fiji, whose consular rank in Polynesia enables him to deal with such cases as they arise. We trust that his action will be prompt and vigorous ; otherwise we fear wo have not heard the last of unprovoked massacres by South Sea Islanders.