AUCKLAND.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 109, 3 November 1877, Page 2

AUCKLAND.

'" r -;; v Wednesday. The following, are} the particulars of acts- of vengeance carried out by H.M. schooner Beagle at Tahna, New Hebrides. This island 3ias v been notbriotls for the murders of Europeans living on it. Apart from what oecurcd before, a series ; ., taken place since. The •"natives::, cbniinenced with Ross, 'Bell,- Captain Daggett and others, and terminated, with the Really.celebrated ,Ross> Lewin^ which' it was said, ought to have been 'visited with' the punishmentof the murderers by the seve- v ral Governments of whom they were sub-? ject^ The murders were passed over, and criminal native agents began to believe m their total immunity, -until at last the British l^ Government, stirred by the titter wantonness and atrocity of the last murder, was induced to tesich them a lesson. Preliminary inquiries were first [undertaken, 'and then the Beagle was ordered to the locality to execute the murderer. The vessel went down to the spot, aid managed to > procure the presence of a number of natives onboard-. At a preconcerted signal these men were pinioned, and laid on the decks. Either from "ampngsjr their number or procured from the shore was the brother of the actual murderer. He admitted attending with his brother at the murder of the man referred, to, and acknowledged that had,'- his brother failed m his shot (which he did not) he would have fired himself . At anjappointed hour this confessed criminal was hung friom the : i yardarm of; the Beagle in t presence of the natives on shore. . body was allowed ixr hang fora good length of ' timeVfo-cpnvincei the natives of his !being dead, ;, and then' the prisoners 'were released, - : and the' body/ taken -ashore and buried.