A SOUTH SEA TROUBLE

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1478, 8 September 1883, Page 4

A SOUTH SEA TROUBLE

From Captain Francis, of the schooner Meg Merrilies (says the Fiji ; Argus' July 13), we have obtained the following particulars of tho outrage which occurred at New Britian on the 10th of May ladt, as related to him by Mr Carroll, a trader for the firm of GoueflVoy and Co., of Samoa'" It appears that the master of the schooner Funny, of Queensland, on arriving at that island for the purpose of recruiting obtained at the first town visited an interpreter, and with him proceeded,in one of the ship's boats, in company with the Government agent and a priest, who was a passenger to a distant village, for the purpose of obtaining laborers, At this village the interpreter was recognised as a renegade member of the tribe, and immediately set upon and slaughtered, his head beint? cloven open with an axe. The body was recovered and taken into the boat; but when it was found that lift was extinct, it was buried in the sea. As the schooner was lying off and on' at the town where the interpreter was obtained, the captain determined upon proceeding there to inform the townspeople of the sad occurrence. This idea was carried out, but when the. story was told to the Natives, who hud assembled on the beach in large numbers, all well armed, they expressed doubts as to the truth of the statement, and expressed their belief that their friend had been murdered by the white men. They then retreated from the boat and opened tire. This was returned, two of the Natives being hit. The light then became general, and in the course of it the captain received two bullets, a serious cut from a tomahawk, and a spear wound—his injuries being so serious that his life was despaired of. The Government agent was also severely wounded, and the priest received a bullet in the thigh, Some of the boat's crew wero also wounded, and they had the greatest difficulty in escaping with their lives, It appears singular that the captain, Government agent, and passenger were all in one boat; but Captain Francis assures us that New Britain being a new field this often occurs in the anxiety to be first to visit a km incognita, besides which the Natives are generally so friendly that much confidence is reposed in them, and the traders and recruiters resident there are of opinion that had the captain taken the body of the interpreter back to his friends instead cf throwing it over the side the lamentable occurrence would never have happened,"