RECENT MURDERS AT LEPER'S ISLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5496, 28 June 1879, Page 6

RECENT MURDERS AT LEPER'S ISLAND.

I The : Noumea correspondent of the Sydnni I Morning Sera Id, writing on the 13th inafc : states :— ■ "' H.M. schooner Conflict arrived on the sth from Aoba, or Leper's Island, the scene of the "Myetery Massacre," reported some months ago, when, it will be remembered, the gentle natives decided fco " have a feed" of human flesh, and to kill the first boat's crew which presented itself, a little scheme duly carried out upon four natives of the South Sea Islands hs-l two Europeans, one of whom was the Government agent. The Wolverene, Commodore Wilson, has visited the charming island and invited the chief to deliver up the murderer. They would see the commodore hanged first. However, when an armed company of sailors and marines were landed in full strength, things began to look serious for the chiefs and their children, who seemed much inclined to show fight. The chief demanded a parley, and a deputation from each of the threatening parties advanced mid-space between them. The "parley " resulted in the delivery of the asserted murderer to the commodore, and the payment by tho chief of twenty-fivo pigs, which, in native "currency," is equivalent to killing five men or twenty-livo womer, tho scoundrels valuing as many as five pigs for the life of one man, and but one for that of a woman. It is to be boped that, with the march of civilisation they will gain in gallantry, and raise tho price of a lady to more pigs than one. Inexperienced people will hardly beiiove that this "piggy" valnation is positive fact. The prisoner delivered to the commodore is known to have been the fellow who acted as decoy to induca the boat's crew to come ashore; but there are grave doubts held by those acquainted vrith the habits of the islands as to his being the murderer. That honour is generally reserved for the chief. Murderer or not, a mau-of-war Bchooner is. told off for the conveyance cf the man to Fiji, for trial, and certain acquittal by the High Commissioner, who, as the law is, possesses power for punishing a white man who kills a black one, but is powerless when the case is reversed. Again, where is the evidence ? The man is accused by other equally red-handed murderers of being the culprit, and on this accueation he without witnesses is sent for trial. The whole thing is a, sorry and most expensive farce, and doubtless no one is more keenly aware of it than the commodore himself, who doubtless would act in a far more common-sense manner were the naval authorities, as they ought to be, at liberty to treat such events upon their own merits and at their responsibility. How much more reasonable and efficacious would it be for the naval authorities to hold the chiefs on the island responsible for the murders committed there ? Is is an incontestable fact that they cannot take life without their connivance, and according to many of their customs, it is the chief himaelf who kills the victim and who chooses the " tit-bit" morsel from his cooked bods - . I a this present affair at Leper's Island, how much more sensible to have made the chief himself execute justice on the murderer. No; he must have a whole ship and her crew, 4c, employed to take him many hundreds of miles—for what? Time will tell. No wonder, however, that Commodore Wilson, or any other gentleman, cares not to take any ettp which, however just aud beneficial in its results, may lead to his being denounced in Parliament as murderer and hangmen by men whooe tongues wag with a vivacity in inverse proportion to the lethargy of their wits. In connection with the murdering of the Mystery's boat's crew a dreadful incident has come to light. One of the four South Sea Islanders escaped into the bush, and for months he was sought in vain. Nothing was ever seen of him until the day after his death through starvation and the suffering c weed by one of his hands being chopped off. Imagine a human creature existing in such a horrible plight.