OUTRAGES IN THE FIJIS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 471, 27 February 1869, Page 3

OUTRAGES IN THE FIJIS.

SETTLEMENTS DESTEOYED.

TEN PEESONS EATEN.

By the arrival of the cutter Lapwing, from the Kji Islands, the Dunedin papers have late news from these islands. Briefly summarised, the news is as follows:—On the 4th January, the plantation of Messrs Burt and Underwood, on the Sigatok river, Viti Levu, was totally destroyed by a raid of the mountaineers, who killed and ate eight Tana men (laborers) and two of Mr Underwood's* children (halfcastes) . Messrs Burt and Underwood

i narrowly escaped the same fate, their ■ wives (native women) being carried off to the mountains. The marauders then killed and ate five horses, ninety pigs, j the same number of goats, a quantity of poultry, and afterwards stripped the place of all "trade" (i.e., firearms, ammunition, &c), and fired the buildings ; burning in the cotton shed alone sixty-five bales of " ginned" Sea Island cotton, of the value of £2500. The total estimated loss of these settlers is L4OOO. On the Nevua river, about thirty miles north of the scene of the above outrage, Mr Laurie was driven off his plantation, which was afterwards fired; his wife (European) was badly beaten; and several other planters were compelled to quit their plantations for fear of similar treatment. At the time the Lapwing left, a petition to Mafu, the "Windward Chief," was being numerously signed by the settlers on the above rivers, and Eewa, praying him to bring the mountaineers to tubjection. It is more than likely that he will accede to the request, as it is known that he is anxious to obtain a footing in that part of the Fijis, as a means to the end it is supposed he has in view—the assumption of the sovereignty of the Fijis. That there will be serious outbreaks on Yiti Levu, for some time to come, may be depended upon.

NEW CALEDONIA,

MASSACEE OE EUROPEANS.

TWENTY-EIVE NATIVES GUIL-

LOTINED,

By the arrival of the clipper schooner Aspasia, Captain Tonge, copies of the New Caledonia Moniteur to the 24th ult. have been received in Auckland. The news from Noumea is of a very startling character, and the country there seems to be in pretty much the same pickle, as far as the natives are concerned, as this colony. It appears that four Europeans and a loyal native were massacred in a boat, at a coast settlement, and were subsequently cooked and eaten. The Erench, however, make no bones about these matters, and are in the habit of going the best way to work to settle the difficulty, and in this instance fifteen natives were at once seized and decapitated, in the presence of the entire population of Noumea. Since then further murders have been reported, and ten more natives have been executed. The Government has ordered in all the outlying settlers, and all coasting vessels are collecting in Noumea. Just before the Aspasia sailed, one of the French men-of-war left the harbor, but her destination was unknown. The weather at Noumea from the 17th to the 22nd of January was extremely close and sultry, and the inhabitants were fully prepared for a hurricane. The whole of the vessels in harbor were stripped and moored, the smaller craft being sent round to the next bay. It is the opinion of the settlers, however, that the hurricane must have passed to the northward of the island, as nothing of it was felt at Noumea. There were two Erench men-of-war in port when the Aspasia sailed.