H.M.S. ROYALIST.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 277, 24 November 1890, Page 3

H.M.S. ROYALIST.

AN ISLAND CRUISE,

REPRISALS ON NATIVES.

ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN THE NEW HEBRIDES.

Sydney, this day.

H.M.s. Royalist bas just returned to this port, after an extended cruise in the South Seas, during which she visited the Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, and other groups. In the Solomon Islaads she bombarded a native village in revenge for the murder of an English trader.

In the New Hebrides she also punished the natives of one island for several massacres committed, already reported. . In one of these cases cannibalism was laid J to the charge of the New Hebrides nativ.es. The warship lay off the iand, bombarded the village of the natives, and then landed an armed party to take reprisals on the alleged murderers. From the New Hebrides she came on to Sydney. The commander of the loyalist, speaking to an interviewer on the question of English settlement in the New Hebrides, gives it as 'his opinion that there is abundant room for enterprising English settlement in the fertile islands of that group, but until the land tenure is placed on a more satisfactory basis, and the island labour traffic is further looked into, Englishmen will hesitate to compete with foreigners who are enabled to work under more advantageous laws.