South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2476, 24 February 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1881.

The details of some of the recent performances of Her Majesty’s gunboats among the benighted and uncivilised races of the South Seas reveal a sad and tragic sequel to missionary enterprise. It appears that the representatives of the British Navy in rectifying some of the grievances of the slavetraders have signalised themselves not by deeds of bravery but by acts of wanton cruelty. From the accounts furnished by their own journals they have been acting the part of human butchers, rather than that of ordinary soldiers. We do not care to apply harsh terms to the officers of the British Navy, but their actions speak

for themselves. H.M.S. Emerald lately paid a visit to the Solomon Group, and the exploits of her crew at Brooker’s Island are thus related : “ The landing party went in three “ boats, and numbered thirty blue- “ jackets and marines, and were under “ the charge of Lieutenants Clarke “ and Hay. The bush was scoured “ lor some distance inland, but no tc natives were found. Returned to “ the beach and destroyed three “ villages and several plantations. “ During this time the Emerald fired a few shells at a village situated on “ the top of a mountain, 1000 feet “ above the sea. One shot was a u capital one and burst in the vil- “ lage. The boats returned to the ship, and as soon as the landing party had had their dinner “ the boats were again manned, “ and visited several outlying islands, “ destroying villages and plantations. “ Several canoes were observed es- “ caping to adjacent islands. They “ were chased by the Emerald’s boats, “ one being fired into. The leading “ natives were shot dead, and fell over- “ board. The other natives imme- “ diately took to the water, and firing “ ceased. On the Emerald’s boats “ nearing the natives in the water they “ were found to comprise one man, two “ women, and three children. One of “ the females received a ball in her “ thigh. The wound was attended to “ after all the party were taken out cf “ the water. The wounded woman 11 was landed on the island, and the “ man was retained as a prisoner.” At another island we are told :—“ Lieut. “ Clarke preserved and ultimately came across a small village which the “ seamen set fire to. The native guide “ was induced to climb a tree and in- “ dicate the direction of the village. “ On the road the natives fired a “ signal gun, and when the Emerald’s u party got to the village, a “ search for natives was being made, “ when the guide saw something “ moving under some planks, and he “ tomahawked the object. Mr Had- “ dock, on hearing screams, entered “ the hut, and found a person holding “ a spear as if in self-defence. Mr “ Haddock ordered one of the seamen 11 to haul the spear out, and in doing “ he dragged a woman from under the “ boards. She yelled loudly. The “ circumstance was reported to Captain “ Maxwell, who ordered the woman “ to be brought outside, when it was “ found she had received a cut on the “ cheek bone which severed the jaw. “ All the houses having been set fire “ to, the woman was carried to a hut “ some distance away, clear of the “ bunting village. Dr Marsh attended “ to and dressed the wounds, but the “ woman tore off the bandages. Finding “ nothing could further be done, she “ was left until her people returned. “ Dr Marsh did not consider her in- “ juries mortal. The native who indieted the wound, on being ques- “ tioned by Mr Haddock at Captain “ Maxwell’s desire, stated that he was “ not aware that it was a woman he “ had struck.”

If these gallant expeditioners, whose right to kill, pillage, and destroy we cannot challenge, share the ordinary feelings of their race, they must feel, on reflection, ashamed of their inhumanity, However justifiable or expedient it may be to protect the lives of South Sea kidnappers and uphold a degraded traffic in human flesh, it is impossible but to deprecate the mean and cowardly method of retaliation adopted. The indiscriminate cutting down of black women and children is a kind of sport that will neither add to the fame or lustre of the British flag. If the unfortunate savages of these islands cannot be subdued by kindness they will hardly be tamed by the shelling of their villages or the shooting and cutting down of their women and children. This is a barbarous kind of retaliation, and it comes with an excessively bad grace from a nation that subscribes liberally towards missionary enterprise.