OUTRAGE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES. Murder of Mr H. A. Mair.

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1474, 13 December 1881, Page 2

OUTRAGE IN THE NEW HEBRIDES. Murder of Mr H. A. Mair.

By private letters receired by the s.s, Taiaroa, from Fiji, we {Herald) learn with great regret of the murder of Mr H. A. Mair, late Government Agent, schooner Isabella (engaged in the labour trade), and brother of Major W. G. Mair, Civil Commissioner, and of Captain Mair, of Auckland. From the narrative we gather that the sad affair occurred at the island of Santo, New Hebrides, on the 12th ult. Mr Mair and the mate and four Fijians, of the Isabella, left the vessel that morning tor the purpose of recruiting labour, and the boat was in sight inshore till half-past eleven o'clock, went it went behind some rocks. Here, as was subsequently ascertained from the survivors, two men were recruited, and a third was being arranged for when the attack was made. Mr Mair was struck with a tomahawk on the right shoulder, but immediately ohot the man who wounded him. He was then struck with a tomahawk on the other shoulder, and knocked overboard out of the boat, surrounded and killed. The mate and two Fijians were also killed ; the other two Fijians were wounded, but they succeeded in escaping, and swam off to a vessel at anchor four miles off. In the evening, as Mr Mairs boat did not return to the Isabella, Captain Hawkins sent another boat in search of him, but it was fired at and returned to the ship. The next day the boats of the Isabella, with the assistance of the crews of three vessels in the neighborhood, went in, and the natives again fired on them and retreated to the hills. Upon landing, the Isabella's boat was found hauled up in the bush, and on a further search being made, the mutilated remains of Mr Mair were found. There were now four vessels iv the harbor, and the crews assembled, and Captain Hawkins read the burial service over the remains, which were buried in a coffin with a quantity of quick-lime. The Isabella started from Suva on her last cruise in September, and had been very successful in enlisting recruits. Mr Mair had been two years in the labor trade, and had run many risks, but his knowledge of the ways of the natives, and his personal skill and courage had brought him safely through until this last sad occasion, when it is supposed he must have been off his guard for a moment, but, unlike many poor fellows who have gone before him in the labor trade, he did not die quite unavenged. He was but 44 years of age at the period of his death, and his untimely fate will be deeply regretted by a large number of the residents of this province, to whom the deceased gentleman was personally known.