FATALITIES AT TAHITI.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 410, 12 October 1889, Page 4

FATALITIES AT TAHITI.

Filrs of Tahiti (Society Group) French newspapers to hand by the I&land steamer Richmond report two shocking fatalities which occurred on the island of Tahiti recently, a man and a woman being burned to death. Each was intoxicated at the time. The former was an American named Hills, a " tonnellier " or cooper by trade, who had an establishment in the town of Papeete, capital of Tahiti. One morning a short time ago he came home intoxicated, and lay down on his bed. About nine hours afterwards a native of the neighbourhood passing by noticed smoke issuing through the walls of Hills' house. He gave the alarm, and when the unfortunate man's room was entered he was found lying dead on the bed with the room on fire, his body enveloped in flames and horribly charred. "His flesh had the appearance ot roast pork," says the " Messager de Tahiti." The body was removed to the military hospital. It was not known how the room came to be on fire. The woman who was burned to death met her end about the same time. She was a native named Tepara, from the Tuamotu Atchipelago, and residing at the time at Furetue, Tahiti. She went to her hut one evening while drunk, and somehow managed to overturn a kerosene lamp, which immediately set the mats on the floor in a blaze. Her dress caught fire, and she W3S terribly burned before any assistance could reach her. She died after lingering a short time in great agony.