TARRING AND FLAGELLATION OF A DOCTOR AT FIJI.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 232, 11 July 1872, Page 5

TARRING AND FLAGELLATION OF A DOCTOR AT FIJI.

Arising out of the case of Craig, charged with detaining the children, a learned doctor was tarred. This clever /Eaculapius was directed by the Chief Justice to visit Craig a few days after he had been subjected to most brutal ill-treatment from the police, in order to say whether he was in a lit state for incarceration in gaol. He immediately thereaf cer rushed off to the Supreme Court, and stated, when placed in the witness-box, that Craig might be confined to prison without aggravating his condition, and he swore that he might be removed. This was done at night — Uraig being taken from his house to the prison ou a stretcher, being so weak and helpless that he could not stand. Thereupon measures were taken by tho friends of Craig to "get at" the doctor. A messenger rushed up to him with breathless haste whilst he was at the bar of a publichouse discussing the merits of pale brandy, entreating the doctor to visit a man who had been taken suddenly ill. Away they sallied, and within an hour it was rumoured that the doctor had been tarred. .Nob bein.; satisfied with tarring, the doctor must needs challenge a member of Parliament to mortal combat. Phis challenge was given verbally, in the presence of witnesses, by the doughty chirurgeon, which the AJ.P. aacepted uiaufully in a written communication. However ibe doctor had not pluck enough to go on with the case— ho threw up the sponge. The M.P., however, was not satisfied; ho was not to be insulted publicly without obtaining redress. Communications iti writing were exchanged between the would-be or would-not-be combatants, in one of which iEsculapius is good enough to Tv iterate many obnoxious charges against his adversary, interlarded with much personal abuse. This broHgbt matters to a crisis, and the morning of Wednesday, April 24, at 11 o'clock, the doctorwas publicly horsewhipped in the streets, numbers of persons standing by and enjoying to see him receive a severe flagellation. Una was administered by the eour.igeous M.P., who hail asserted previously to his friends that he would "make the doctor eat his last insulting letter," and he did so. For beyond administering to him a sound thrashing, in which his garments were torn in ribbons, the M.P. stood over him, anil, thrusting the letter, rolled up in a ball, into his mouth, forcibly pushed it down the doctor's throat. — Fiji Gazette.