NEW CALEDONIA.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1033, 23 March 1869, Page 3

NEW CALEDONIA.

(P^om the "Now Zealand Herald.") By the arrival of tlie clipper schooner^ Aspasia, Captain Tonge, we have received copies of the Moniteur to Jan. 24. The news from Noumea is of a very startling character, and the country there seems to be in pretty much the same pickle, as far as the natives are concerned, as our own province. It appears that four Europeans and a loyal native were massacred in a boat, at a coast settlement, and subsequently cooked and eaten. The French, however, make no bones about these matters, and are in the habit of going the best way to work to settle the difficulty, and in this instance fifteen natives were at once seized and decapitated in the presence of the entire population of Noumea. Since then further murders have been reported, and ten more natives have been executed. The Government has ordered in all the outlying settlers, and all the coasting vessels are collecting in Noumea. Just before the Aspasia. sailed, one of the French men-of-war left the harbor, but her destination was unknown. The weather at Noumea, from the 17 th to the 22nd of January, was extremely close and sultry, and the inhabitants were fully prepared for a hurricane. There were two trench men-of-war in port when the Aspasia sailed.