A LESSON TO ADVENTURERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 256, 28 October 1899, Page 13 (Supplement)

A LESSON TO ADVENTURERS.

PUNISHED FOP. BRUTALITY TO

NATIVES

A remarkable criminal trial has taken place in the west district ut' Nyassalatul, British Central Africa, before Captain B. Pearce, tlite Deputy Commissioner, with Messrs Forbes and Murray as assessors. U. R. Zlehl, who described himself as a trader acting" on behalf of the. .North Charterlnnd Company, was accused of nine acts of beating, terrorismg1, robbing, and outraging the natives, along with his followers, whom he represented to be that trading: company's police. Eight of the charges were found proved-, and he was sentenced to pay compensation for the stolen cattle and property; also to the relatives of a woman and girl outraged and of two men killed; also to no imprisoned for six months, with hard labour, with the option of a line of £.'«) and securities for £125, the only surely to be accepted being Mr Hayes, manager of the North Charterhuul Company. Tho compensation and fine wen- ul once paid The trial lasted for three days, and it was conducted "with great patience and even kindliness on the part of the. judge. 'Die sentence appears lenient when we know that the punishment of outrage in tiie Ngxml tribe is death. Still a severe and much needed lesson has been thua read to the UNSCRUPULOUS ADVENTURERS, chiefly foreigners, of the Peters stamp hitherto, who, by Increasing numbers, uro finding their way north of tin.1 Zambesi, and who act as filibusters, or demoralist> the natives by their vices, contrary to tin; Brussels Act and British, as well as German law. It is men of this stamp that accuse the missionaries, who fortunately have preceded them, of seeking' to prevent Europeans from trading in the country, and of Inciting the natives to make warxupon traders, and of objectIng to Government taking; over North Nyoniland. Formerly, and even south of

the Zambesi, it was such men thai gave rise to native wars, costing the Cape and the Imperial Governments much treasure and blood. But for the missionaries ths lives of Ziehl and bis followers, art ing as they are proved to have done, would not have been spared for one hour. Commissioner Sharpe, Sir Harry Johnston's able successor, knows well the value of men like the Scottish medical men. Laws and Elmslie, and of the young Scotsman, Donald Fraser, to whom Ziehl was greatly indebted in this ease. Mr Sharpe anci his deputies are determined to put clown all outrages on the natives,who are fast be ing converted into skilled labourers ami captains of labour and servants of the. Administration, as police, sepoys, telegraphlßts, and skilled clerks.