DEATH OF BISHOP PATTESON.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 892, 25 November 1871, Page 2

DEATH OF BISHOP PATTESON.

ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN. The following address to the Queen on the subject of the death of Bishop Patteson, and the labor traffic among the South Sea Islands, has been adopted in the House of Representatives, and was alluded to in the Governor's prorogation speech : Most Gracious Sovereign,— We, your Majesty's faithful aud loyal subjects, bee to express the deep sorrow with which we have heard of the death of the Right Reverend John Coleridge Patteson, D.D., Bishop of Melanesia, and his missionary companions, the Reverend Mr Atldn, and an aboriginal Islander, who on the 20th September last, were martyred by the inhabitants of the island of Nukapu, in the Southern Pacific Ocean. We have reason to believe that the cruel deed originated in exasperation of the natives at ill-usage received by them from certain Europeans, subjects of your Majesty, who, under colour of providing free labour for the Australian colonies, have been guilty of acts inconsistent with the law of nations and the first principles of humanity. It is known that these persons have deceived the natives by false pretences, and kidnapped them from their homes ; and it is believed that the murder of the Bishop and his companions was an act of blind retnliation for the injuries so inflicted. One of the latest utterances of the good Bishop was a solemn protest against this iniquity which he addressed to the Synod of his Church in this colony, with a prediction of such results as that of which, too soon, he was himself the victim—a copy of which is herewith respectfully forwarded to Your Most Gracious Majesty. We venture to submit that a grave duty rests on the British Government, that of protecting the Islanders of the Pacific against the inflictiou of wrongs by the hands of British subjects—w roues little less grievous than those of the African slave trade. And we beg to assure Tour Most Gracious Majesty, that we, the Commons of New Zealand, will at all times be ready to assist Your Majesty's Government by every means within our reach, in suppressing the practice referred to. And we pray that Your Majesty may lone live as the protector of the weak and defenceless in every part of the world."