NATIVE TROUBLE IN NEW CALEDONIA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3134, 12 July 1917, Page 6

NATIVE TROUBLE IN NEW CALEDONIA

M. Legras, of Noumea, who is at present vis-itin" Wellington, conveys the information that there has been a native insurrection of the interior natives of NewCaledonia for the past three month.-*, and when he left Noumea some three weeks ago tho natives in revolt were still fighting against the punitive expedition which had been sent out to quell t'iio uprising. M. Legras states that the rising is not of a very serious character. Some 200 or 300 natives are involved, but as they are very familiar with the mountainous bush country of the interior, it is not the simplest task to get at them. Tho natives, whose desire is to drive the French into the sea commenced their depredations by murdering five or six settlers in the back country, and as they were fairly well armed, action was immediately taken to bring the offenders to book, which had not been .completely accomplished at the latest advices. Questioned as to whether it was held at Noumea that German influence was behind the trouble, M. Legras gavj an emphatic no. There were a good few Germans in New Caledonia when tho war broke out—chiefly concerned in the various chrome, maganese, and nickel mines, but as soon as war broke out they v. no all interned, and subsequently font to Sydney for safe keeping. Ho classes the outbreak as one of those sporadic o flairs to which the kanakas were pron.', whenever they had anyone to firo their stiip-d imaginations with pictures of complete dominion over the island. It was only a matter of time when the natives concerned would be hunted down and the trouble stamped out.