THE WAR IN NEW CALEDONIA.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 314, 8 January 1879, Page 3

THE WAR IN NEW CALEDONIA.

+ BLACKS VERSUS BEEF. (From correspondent Sydney Morning Herald.) Nouxba, 22nd December. Since tho sailing of the Sea Nymph, the following incident illustrative of tbe instincts of the natives of New Caledonia was related to me by tho proprietor of the station upon which it occurred. The place in question is in tbe Koue district, olose to tho sceno ot the latest outbreak Tlie chief Cattelier, of the neighboring tribo, nmued Taniao, had undertaken to protect my informant's property. Oco day a smoke was observed mounting from a valley seme miles away. The chief Cattelier summoned his men, to the number of 200, tbe tribe being a powerful one, and started with tbe intention of surrounding the spot. Gradually they narrowed thnir circle in their own wuy manner, and in due time came upon a unall group ol 15 men of the rebel tribe Ounoua, seated around a huge fire on which was a well-roasted bullock. The 15 Ounoua rebels were killed. The roasted bullock was put on one side, and the 15 dead blacks took its place. More logs were piled on the fire. The expectant Tamao warriors waited patiently the necessary time, and they ate their dead enemies, and returned to their homes rejoicing. The roasted bullock proved a complete waste, owing to the decided preference shown by the men of Tamao for baked humau bodies. The news of the revolt during the past fortnight is almost "nil." From different Juarters there have been expeditions against w rebels. The number of tho enemy killed during the time mentioned amounts to 20 in eight or nine different engagements, and some half-dozen women and children taken prisoners. A few huts burnt and '' marches made in the revolted districts, resulting in " surprises." News has arrived tbat Naounoo, tbe chief of tbe Menifoo tribe at Bourail, has offered to surrender 150 of his fighting men if their lives will be spared. Naounoo. is one of tbe most important heads of tbe rorolt. It was bo who one evening, within speaking distance, bat hidden by tho darkness, taunted the officer sent in search of him, saying he and bis men would fight to the death, chaso every white man out of the country except such as they ate, which fate he specially reserved for the Commandant of Bourail, upon whose liver he said he would enjoy himself. This conversation was carried on in good French, interspersed with laughs of derision at the chance shots fired at him in the dark, but which were spent upon the bard rocks behind wbich Naounoo was amusing himself. He formerly acted as interpreter between the Government and the natives. He is*" a fair type of the New Caledonian savage ; and yet until the acts committed by these men during the revolt proved .them so in tho fullest sense of the terra, one did not dream of applying the word to many of them, so civilised and intelligent were they, conversing in French or English, as the case might be. Now will ari'e a knotty question what to do with these men when they surrender. The rebels' game is evidently now deemed a losing one by themselves, though how long it will tako in order to clear the country of them, 'tis as yet hard to surmise with correctness. One thing is tolerably certain, that if a severe lesson is not dealt by the Government to the natives who have been in insurrection, the effect upon tbe other tribes will be very bad indeed, especially in view of the immense amount of injury they have been able to inflict upon the whites, when but a small part of the blacks rose against them ; and of the length of time which these few tribes have remained hurling defiance at the authorities. In a fow days just six months will have passed tiuce the commencement cf the outbreak, the gendarmes having been massacred on the 24th of