THE TORRES STRAITS MAIL.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 372, 19 March 1879, Page 2

THE TORRES STRAITS MAIL.

?— DREADFUL ATROCITIES IN NEW GUINEA. TWO TRADERS KILLED AND EATEN. WHOLESALE POISONING OF EUROPEAN TEACHERS. (FROM OUK OWN CORRESPONDENT). Sydney, 19th March.

The Torres Straits mail has arrived at Cooktown. Belgium has declined to withdraw the duty on English iron. Sweeping reforms in tho American army are contemplated. A sensation has beon croated at Berlin by the discovery of treason in families occupying high, social, and political potitions in the country. Important army secrets have been betrayed. News from New Guinea states that the coast natives are unsettled. Two traders named Iron? and Wills have been murdered. The Cloudy Bay natives found Irons lying ?ick , of fever on tbe bauch, speared him, and then , cut his head off. Wills, who was looking for cedar in the same neighborhood, was beheaded and then eaten. A boat sent to avenge the murders was courageously attacked and repulsed by the natives. Numerous othor deaths of Europeao and native New Guinea toachers are reported. They all appear to have been poisoned by an extract of the deadly upas-tree being placed in their drinking water. A Chinese junk attacked the natives. In the fight which ensued three natives were killed, and their chief badly wounded.