LATEST FROM THE ISLANDS.

Evening Star, Issue 8407, 7 January 1891, Page 2

LATEST FROM THE ISLANDS.

AUCKLAND, January 7. The Richmond arrived from the Islands this morning, and reports that things are quiet at Tonga, Samoa, and Tahiti. The Rev. James Chalmers, the well-known missionary, has arrived from Rarotonga. Mr Moss, the British Resident, returned by the Richmond, having made a preliminary official visit to the flervey Group. While at Rarotonga he inquired into the reported repulse of British traders from Mangaia, also as to alleged abases in the liquor traffic, besides obtaining voluminous data for the New Zealand Government regarding the prospects of trade and the state of the Islands generally. He was very cordially received by the Natives. A strict liquor law has now been passed in Rarotonga, and it only allows the sale of strong drinks on a permit signed by the principal chief, and places the whole of the liquor traffic in the Islands in charge of one man. Queen Makeaf, of Rarotonga, has made a present of a piece of land in the Aroma township as a site for the British Residency, and the inhabitants generally will give labor and materials free to build the Residency. Mr Moss returns to Rarotonga permanently shortly. News from Rarotonga states that the schooner Ararna (formerly the Julia Price, of Auckland) was totally lost near Aibataki Island in a squall, and that all on board (sixteen Natives) were drowned.