ISLAND TRAGEDIES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9637, 1 November 1909, Page 5

ISLAND TRAGEDIES.

DESPERATE BAND OF MURDERERS.

TERROR OF THE ISLANDS. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright, SYDNEY, October 30. In connection with the massacre of natives at the station of Captain Brinskin, later details .show that the outlaw chief yito, With a band of natives as desperate as himself, is responsible for the massacre, The murderers came from the mainland in boats laden with conn, ostensibly to t r ade, ar.d then murdered all on the island except a boy of ten, who swam to the mainland and gave the alarm. A missionary named Nicholson, with a body of friendly armed natives, crofased to ttie island, but the murderers were gone. The bodies were terribly mangted, presenting a gruesome sight. Mrs Brinskin was killed in water, and her body was washed away. Sito is the terror of the white traders in the Western Sobmons. It is stated that he is resolved to exterminate not only all Europeans, but native women who ally themselves with whites. He has threatened Mr Nicholson, the missionary, many times.

Further particulars received in regard to the murder of the German explorer Herr Dammkohler in New Guinea states that Herr Dammkohler and his companion, Oldorp, penetrated two hundred miles up the Markham river. Running short of stores they despatched native carriers for fresh supplies, and they were attacked wliili these were absent.

Orlorp put up a desperate fight after his companion was killed, and was wounded.. After suffering great hardships, with the assistance of a raft, he managed to make his way down the river to a settlement of Finchaven.