THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8513, 19 August 1907, Page 5

THE NEW HEBRIDES.

STORIES OF OUTRAGES. A BOY FLOGGED TO DEATH. MELBOURNE, August 17. Mr Lucas, manager for Burns.Philp and Co. interviewed the Department of External Affairs with regard to the sole distribution under French connivance, of spirits, firearms, and ammunition in the New Hebrides. The difficulty hitherto, he said, had been to induce the French Government to use its influence to put a iftop to the practice. Prohibition of the liquor and firearms traffic was contained in the new Anglo-French Convention, but nothing had been done to enforce it. The agreement had been loyally observed by British steamers. France had not only not done its share, but advantage had been taken of the British refusal to participate in the traffic, by vessels flying the French flag, to ship to the islands, rifles, gunpowder, cartridges, and dynamite, besides large quantities of inferior spirits, mostly gin. Meanwhile, trade was rapidly passing into French hands. Although the volume of trade in the Hebrides had in the last twelve months increased by 20 per cent, in exports and imports, since the convention had been adopted British trade had fallen off about 40 per cent. The native had a special fondness for gin and firearms, and while French vessels could supply these their exports would be obtained and conveyed away by French vessels. Frenchmen were boasting cf the pull they had over Australians, and were extending their operations to all parts of the islands. Mr Lucas described the liquor traffic as a disgrace to humanity. The Rev. Mr Leggatt, a New Hebrides missionary, has received a letter from Mr Roxburgh, one of the oldest settlers »f the group, giving details of a number of outrages upon natives for which French, Norwegian, German, and English residents appear equnlly responsible. In one instane a native boy was flogged to death for desertion. Another boy, it is alleged, was brutally murdered. Steps are being taken to bring the cases the notice of the Federal Government for representation to the Secretary for the Colonies.