Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1883-09-08 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

OUTRAGE BY SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS. The latest outrage in the South &axis reported in despatches just received from New Zealand. It seems that the schooner Fanny was on a labour cruise in the South Seas, Mr. Fowler, the Government agent, being on board. Among the islands visited was that of New Ireland, and shortly after a j arty had landed from the vessel they were attacked by the natives in a body. Both Captain Wawn, of the Fanny, and Mr. Fowler were wounded very severely, but they nevertheless managed to escape from their murderous assailants and reach the vessel in safety; the poor interpreter, however, was killed by the natives. An interesting account is published of the punishment expedition to the Hermit Islands, in West Polynesia, by a couple of German men-of-war. There existed in the Hermit Islands, it seems, a German trading station, the agent of which was a Mr. Southwell. At the beginning of 1881, while he was lying ill, seven of his workmen, who were natives of one of the Solomon Islands, were murdered by the natives of the Hermit Islands, who then attacked the agent, bound him and buried him alive, afterwards plundering and burning the settlement. Later on they repeatedly :fired at trading ships, and in May, 1882, shot on land the captain of the little steamer Freya, Mr. Homeyer. This steamer had been lying fast for some time, and was also to be attacked, but the crew replied to the gunfire of the natives, and, after wounding several of them, frightened them away. The German men-of-war arrived at I the Hermit Islands in December, 1882. The , Hermit group consists of 16 islands, the largest ' of which, Luf, is rather more than three miles ' long by one broad. A range of hills runs along its middle, and it is thickly clothed with trees and brushwood. The number of inhabitants is not more than 100, of whom about 40 are men. The houses are firmly and neatly built of basket work, with arched roofs. Most are about 30, some 46 feet long, and respectively 20 to 30 feet broad, and the largest 30 feet high. The Hermit islanders are more warlike than their neighbours the Anachorites, and besides the usual canoes, possess a quantity of large ones, about 60 feet long, with which they undertake predatory expeditions. There was no parleying with the natives before the German men-of-war attacked, for their boats no sooner approached the shore than the natives took to flight and hid in the impenetrable woods and ravines. All attempts to catch the men were in vain; only a few women fell into the hands of the Germans. The rest of the inhabitants contrived to escape in their canoes unobserved. The result of the 10 days stay at the Hermit Islands may be briefly summed up as follows: The property of the natives, consisting of about 67 houses, 54 canoes, a number of small objects, 24 guns, and some ammunition, was destroyed, the plantations were uprooted, two men killed, and many inhabitants driven away from their island.  It has been freely rumoured in 'Prelee that a young woman who gave evidence against the Ballyord Mooglighters, at the Dublin Commission in March, 1882, has been shot dead in Australia, where she emigrated some time after the prosecution. ---•  - 4•  • - SPRRADING SMatLl2-