LABOUR OUTRAGE ON THE AGNES DONALD.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 84, 10 January 1885, Page 5

LABOUR OUTRAGE ON THE AGNES DONALD.

In papers by the Arawata from Fiji appears an account of a labour outrage on the Auckland schooner Agnes Donald. Tke 11 Suva Times" says:—" The schooner Agnes Donald, Captain Hayward, from Auckland bound for the Gilbert Islands, put into port yesterday with the captain and crew wounded under the following circumstances. It appears from the captain's statement that two Tokalous ran away from their island, and were shipped by the captain of the schooner at Apamama and taken on to Auckland. They reshipped therefor a trading voyage, and being well treated on board and on good terms with all hands, appeared to be perfectly contented and happy. On the evening of Saturday last, however, they made what the captain considers an evidently premeditated attack on himself and crew, having been seen sharpening a knife, although at the time nothing was thought of their action. On the watch being called at 8 o'clock on the day named, the men in question waited at the hatch, and, as the first man came up, they struck him on the head with an iron bar, fracturing his skull, in addition to inflicting two severe wounds on the head. They then went aft and met each man as he came up, the cry of murder having been raised at the first attack. They succeeded in wounding every one on board except the cook, who got off with a black eye and two scratches with a knife on the arm ; the captain was wounded in six places, and some of their victims received four or five stabs. The captain believes that the men intended to take the ship, as they were afraid she would go to their island, and they would be laid hold of and punished by their chief for having run away. While one of them was struggling near the rail with one of those whom he had attacked, he over - balanced himself, fell overboard, and was not again seen. After this the crew got the mastery, and secured the other assailant. The struggles of this man in his efforts to release himself must have been incessant, as he has succeeded in skinning his hands and wrists to a frightful extent. He is in custody now. The captain is at Mr Darrach's ; the man first attacked is in the Hospital in a very dangerous state, and the other men are on board, slowly recovering from their injuries."

There is a bobbery among the Christ church Hospital staff. Dr. Nedwill resigned, alleging as a reason that Dr. Stewart had performed a grave operation on a patient, who had since died, without previously consulting his colleagues on the staff, as provided by Hospital rules. Salvini owns and runs a vineyard near Florence that yearly yields him 2,000 quarts of wine, fetching twenty cents per quart in market. Through his acting and close economy he has become wealthy, while Rossi, notoriously extravagant, is,, poor.