THE SOUTH SEAS.

Press, Volume XXV, Issue 3313, 15 April 1876, Page 2

THE SOUTH SEAS.

[Via Auckland per Llewellyn. J Auckland, April 13. Fiji news is to the sth by the Llewellyn. A great disturbance is reported at Samoa on the 13th of March. A meeting of chiefs was to take place, at which the King was to submit the question whether he should retain the throne cr retire. Captain Steven?, of the Barraconta, went with a guard of men, who fired arms opposite the house, while two armed boats were sent to the back of the Peninsula to prevent a hostile tribe from interfering. Before the- commencement of the proceedings an officer told Captain Stevens that armed natives were thronging the woods, and trying to get between his party and the boats. He sent a party of Wup jackets toreconnoitre. They found a large body of natives, who, when called upon to diape se, replied by rushing ioto the road and beginning a sharp fire from rifles. The fight continued for twenty minutes, the blue jackets not even having any bayonets fixed. Eleven sailors were woundfd, and one died. Some chiefs to whom Captain Stevens applied stopped the firing, and forty prisoners were brought in, and Captain Stevens obtained three chiefs as hostages for the lives of the Europeans. There was no further disturbance, but the meeting was not renewed. The Barraconta and Nymph are to rend(Z7ous at Auckland, where their presence is r< quired to form a Court Martial on certain officers in the Pacific equadron. The case between Captain Stevens and Mr Gayae, Paymaster, will be heard among others. " It is publicly st ted in Fiji that Governor Gordon will soon be removed from the Governorship, and replaced by Mr Birch, Colonial Secretary at Ceylon. The hull of the schooner Dauntless has been sold for £307 at Levuka. EL M.S. Sappho grounded on the outer reel at Levuka while starting to relieve the Barraconta at Samoa, but floated off at high water little damaged.