AN EXCITING STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. ONE MAN KILLED AND A WOMAN INJURED.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 237, 14 January 1888, Page 8

AN EXCITING STRUGGLE FOR LIFE.

ONE MAN KILLED AND A WOMAN INJURED.

The brigantine Ika Vuker, which arrived from a' South Sea Island cruise last evening, brings news of the wreck of a schooner called the Mana, which occurred afc Byron's island on August the 14th last. Our | Honolulu files received per Alameda also contain particulars of this casualty, as follows : — Captnin Nilsson, who left Honolulu in command of the schooner Mana, returned with five of his crew by tho Lilian. The captain reports tho loss of the Mana, giving the following particulars. She sailed hence on the 29th of July last, with 112 return contract .labourers for the Gilbert Islands. Arriving afc the island of Nukuuau, the southernmost of the group, .after a passage of 16 days, thirty of the people were landed thoro. The schooner then went round to the west side of the island, beating up towards the anchorage. The captain went aloft to supervise operations He had the sails lowered and was going to anchor, when he noticed that something was wrong. The cable stopped running out, the anchor apparently parting therefrom. He ordered the man at the helm to 14 hard down," but the man mistook him and put the helm hard up. As a result the vessel drifted on the reef,andhalf-an-hour r after bhe- broke clear in two. There was a scene of confusion on the vessel , striking. The creW and the simple Islanders tossing their boxes and bundles overboard, threw themselves in the surf amongst the dunnage. One man w.as struck on the head with a heavy package, either killing him or causing him to drown. A woman had her arm broken in a similar way, but managed to gain the beach. Her arm was amputated with a knife,, and at last accounts tho poor woman was recovering. After a stay of thirteen days on the island, Captain Nilsson and the ship's company were cheerful by the sight of the Ika Vuka. The captain chartered this vessel to land the rest of the return labourers at their homes, and with the exception of one or two runaways his crew and himself at Jaluit.