DEPORTATION OF "TOMMY TANNA."

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 29, 9 April 1907, Page 7

DEPORTATION OF "TOMMY TANNA."

old Queensland days it was a picturesque and interesting sight to see the returning time-expired Kanaka -‘bays’’ clustered together at the wharves awaiting embarkation. Each had his well-known, red-painted box full to overflowing with cheap and gaudy finery, and Brummagem cutlery of priceless value in the islands. The last days of “Tommy Tamm” on the soil of the Australian Commonwealth are now in progress and the last of the “boys” are being compulsorily deported to island homes wellnigh forgotten, and where they will return almost like ghosts from another world.

It used to be the custom to draw the boys up on parade at tho wharves prior to embarkation, and someone usually a parson, was deputed to give them a short address inculcating good behaviour on their return to tho islands, where tribal feuds were of deplorable ferocity and fiequency. On one occasion, a former sheriff of Queensland, with the approval of the Government, determined give a number of timeexpired Kanakas a striking example of the dread majesty of the British law to carry away with them. Two Kanakas were at Uio time in gaol under a sentence of death for a brutal murder of a fellow Kanaka, and the sheriff arranged that a large party of returning time-expired “boys” should be present to witness the execution. The unfortunate culprits were duly “strung np,” but, to the surprise of the sheriff and tho officials present, the assembled Kanakas broke out into expressions of uproarious delight and approval. Inquiry subsequently elicited the fact that the two “boys” that were hanged were tho only two that came from a particular island with which all the others were at war. The general rejoicing was intended as a compliment to" the Queensland Government and the .sheriff who had arranged this pleasing spectacle of tho hanging of their enemies as the last and most pleasing impression to carry away from the Australian mainland.