RETRIBUTION. NATIVE TREACHERY PUNISHED.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 255, 14 April 1888, Page 5

RETRIBUTION. NATIVE TREACHERY PUNISHED.

Mi Si u>iit. in a lutei letter, tells ho'v he set tow oik to punish the natheb fin their hearheioir- attack upon his piity. A minibt't' ot his own " boys " weic tiaincd in the use ot lueainis, and tour da.v aKciwin (It- he 1 dinned to the \illage with a patty ot one hunitieil kanakas and Soloman Ulamhns, and eiuht worlvintM). lie was aI no aeeoiuiiaru'd liy Iho (i(M'ni,ui duccto' cncountei took place with the nati\eh of the Milage whoie he was attacked. In the course ot the ehiot who led the attack w.i^ shot in the head as lie was at - tempting to e>capp oxer a ience. Scveial othei mitnes weio killed, besides A\hicha lame nuniber weie wounded. Mis Stuart, heaid not hinn fuithor trom her son until Monday e\cniiiij at o o'clock, when a cable mes^a^c wa.s icccived to the eOcet that lit; had aimed satciy in Sydney. 'J'iiis scarcely tallies with the statement ot oui moinini; contein))orary that the United Sta'es Consul in New Britain had been killed in the fight.

A CONSULS LIFK IN THE PACIFIC. The lite ot a Consul amongst the islands of the We 1 - torn l'aoiiie is nob one of the easiest po-itions to lulfil, judging by the experience^ of Mr 0. L* 1 . Htuaib. In his letters to his friends in Auckland, he states that he hat. .suttered from fever himself, and that in one week no less than six natnes and one white man belonging to his party had succumbed to dysentery. That tho natives were not crushed by the retribution inflicted is evidenced by a letter recently forwarded by Mr Stuart to his mother. fie states : " Now, a*. 1 write, I have native* all around my dwelling 1 . 1 ha\e heaul that the kanakas, are coming 1 down upon us.'' Mr Stuart's description of some of the natives is certainly not one calculated to impress, the visitors favourably. At one of the islands lie saw the natives with their faces all blackened witb charcoal, except-

ing their lips, which are painted a bright -| reel. Their teeth protrude, some of them J being 1 , he estimates, an inch and a-half in* length, and altogether they are a mosb 4 savage-looking lot. At one island the 1 natives crowded round him when he landed, ] and although he could not make himself"" understood, still they were veiy eager by signs to know what his carbine was. At length Mr Stuart fired it off. That &ettled the matter. As if by magic all the native vanished, and he found himself alone, nor, did any of those natives come round him again while he was there. After that^ experiment Mr Stuart was not at all afraid bo wander alone about the bush for he felt assurccb hat the natives would not molest him, or in fact come near him at all. At one place when the ves&el anchored, the canoes crowded round, and the occupants* yelled and hooted in a manner that was • most abominable; and at length, the captain &eeing- that there was no chance of getting peace, ordered the vessel to 1 go ahead.