SANDWICH ISLANDS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 112, 26 February 1853, Page 9

SANDWICH ISLANDS.

We are in receipt of Honolulu papers to the 17th of November.

An attempt at Lynch law had just heen made there, which was successfully resisted, but the mob burnt down a large house, used as a police station house, harbour master's office, &c, It appears that for some time past the police of Honolulu had made themselves obnoxious by rough treatment of persons apprehended by them, and that they were consequently in very bad odour, with the sailors more particularly. An unusual number of ships were in the harbour early in November. On the evening of Tuesday the 9th of November, an American seamen named Burns was among others confined for drunkenness in " the fort," and next morning was found dead, his skull having been fractured. This it was believed was caused by a blow from constable George Sherman, an American, employed as gaoler at the fort; and it proved afterwards, on a jury being empannelled by the Marshal, that this was the case, a disturbance having taken place among the prisoners in the fort, which Sherman endeavoured to quell, and in doing so used a truncheon or club, and either accidentally or intentionally struck Burns a blow which caused his death. Before, however, the jury had returned their verdict an excited mob of sailors and others gathered ahout the fort, and with loud cries demanded that Sherman should he given up to them as a murderer. This was steadily refused, the Governor of the fort having 300 or 400 native soldiers under arms, prepared to resist force by force, if necessary, but unwilling to cause bloodshed if it could he avoided. Late in the afternoon the body of Burns was buried, and the large procession of sailors which had accompanied it to the grave on their return spread over the town, uttering wild cries for revenge, and urging each other to violence. The Governor still forbore to use force, and the U.S. Commissioner and Consul, with other gentlemen of influence, tried every means, by addressing the sailors, to persuade them to return to their ships aud boarding-houses, assuring them that Sherman would have an impartial trial before a jury of his own countrymen. The sailors appeared to yield to these appeals, and things were becoming quiet, when a dispute occurred between a small body of sailors and constable Williams, in charge of the police station-house, which led to sin attack on him, and ultimately on the house itself. Some one shouting out to set fire to the house, a brand was soon obtained, and the house fired, nearly all the excited sailors being now congregated before the house. Still the Governor refused to begin a scene of bloodshed by bringing out his troops. The fire companies of the city promptly mustered, to the rescue of the custom-house and other houses in the neighbourhood, aud

curiously enough many of the men who had cheered on the destruction of the police-office helped to work the five engines in preventing the fire from spreading. By great exertions the fire was got under, after burning down the police-station and two small houses adjoining. The exciting scene appeared to have cooled down the sailors, and they created no more disturbances that night. Next day their aspect was still threatening-, and the foreign residents assembled, headed by Americans, and by eleren o'clock had, with the approval t)f the Government, organised an extempore volunteer corps, 200 strong, and a cavalry force, 50 strong, placing both at the disposal of the Government to be allowed to use force to put down the riot. The Governor told them, about three in the afternoon, to clear the streets, and arrest all who resisted. The natives immediately went in a body in search of the sailors, and a hand-to-hand fight commenced in the streets, with clubs and stones, which ended in the defeat of the sailors, and the apprehension of some forty or fifty of them. The streets' were now quiet, and the volunteer companies patrolled them all the evening and night and no fresh disturbances arose. The U.S. Commissioner, Mr. Severance, addressed on Friday morning a strong but temperate remonstrance to the sailors on their outrageous conduct. -Subsequently a meeting of the foreign residents was held, and permanent arrangements made for the formation of a volunteer corps to assist the Government in preserving peace and order, whenever necessary.

Bormah.—The latest intelligence received at Calcutta. from the seat of war was to October the 7th. Some reinforcements were to leave Calcutta the loth and 16th, and until their arrival at Ban<roon no forward movement would be made. The Burmese show no inclination to succumb ; on the contrary, they have approached in small bodies near our cantonments at Eangoon causing some annoyance. The inhabitants of Pergii are suffering great privations and ill-usage at the hands of their oppressors. The Admiral had visited Prome and was fired into, but deferred the assault until General Godwin was fully prepared for the advance, which was expected to proceed up the river to Prome.

The following Address to the. Governor is in course of signature at Christenm-eh and Lytfcelton. It is, we understand, to be forwarded by the " Minerva," which will not leave probably till Monday.

To His Excellency Sir George Grey, K. C. 8., Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand, $c.,Cyc.

Sir, —We, the undersigned inhabitants of the Canterbury Settlement, beg to address your Excellency for the purpose of submitting to you certain apprehensions and anxious hopes which have been excited in our minds by reflection on the critical circumstances in which this colony is necessarily placed by the approaching introduction of" a totally new form of Government.

Having regard to the organized state of hostility between the executive and popular party, which has invariably subsisted in colonies peopled by the British race so long as Eepresentative Institutions were withheld from the colonists, and from which, of course, New Zealand has not been exempt, we cannot help fearing that, as has happened on many like occasions, the important and most valuable public objects which the New Constitution is calculated to effect, may be seriously impeded, or even for a time entirely frustrated,. by those mutual feelings of animosity and distrust which hare arisen out of past collisions ; and we pray of your excellency to believe that it is our most earnest wish to see all past differences and angry partv_ feelings buried in oblivion, to the end that \ our Excellency, as the Representative of the Crown, and those who enjoy the confidence of the people, may sincerely concur and co-ope-rate, with a view to the future alone, in the task oi carrying into effect the purposes of the Crown and British Parliament, in bestowing upon the people of this country the inestimable boon of J roviucial and General Bepresentative Institutions. We are in hopes that these assurances may be acceptable to your Excellency, and that they may have some weight with the popular leaders in other parts of New Zealand, where the heats and animosities to which we have alluded have taken deeper root than amongst ourselves. o

We could have wished that the inhabitants of the Canterbury Settlement were able to convey to Your Excellency without delay some expression of our apprehensions and desires, in the more weighty form of Eesolutions passed at Public Meetings; and we have only resorted to the less eligible means of an Address signed by those who may concur in its object, in order not to lose the early opportunity of communication with Wellington which is afforded by the sailing of the Minerva. »

We Lave the honour to be, Sir, Your Excellency's most obedient, humble Servants. Canterbury, Feb. 22, 1853.