A MAN OF WAR SENT AFTER W. J. HUNT.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 916, 9 February 1881, Page 2

A MAN OF WAR SENT AFTER W. J. HUNT.

The Fiji Times says:—“ The exPremier of of his defunct Sorrioa Majesty is fast becoming a man of mark. On Sunday last H.M.S. Cormorant unexpectedly appeared in port and general curiosity was aroused to know the nature of her errand. During the next day it transpired, that when His Excellency Sir Arthur Gordon. High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, became aware that W. J. Hunt had left Auckland in the s.s. Clyde with the avowed intention of proceeding to Samoa, in defiance of his order of prohibition, he telegraphed to the Commodore on the Australian Station requesting him to despatch a vessel for the purpose of removing him thence and deporting him to Sydney. This the Commodore declined to do, and the High Commissioner then telegraphed Horae with the result that the Cormorant was directed to proceed upon the important and hazardous service. Upon arrival in Levuka it was found that Hunt was resident in this town and Her Majesty’s cruiser started on her return voyage from her wild goose chase yesterday morning. This is truly a dignified record for all parties concerned. While the active interposition of English men-of-war is required for the protection of British lives in the Western Pacific, their anchors remain down in Sydney harbour ; but when a British subject presumes even to threaten to disregard the injunction of the High Commissioner, relative to his residence in one island or another, all the springs of High Commission and Admiralty machinery are at once in motion. Sir Arthur Gordon is certainly to be congratulated upon the dignified position in which he has placed himself. He has hurled a thunderbolt and has not even crushed a butterfly, and by his injudicious action be has made himself and Captain Bruce the laughing stock of the southern hemisphere.”