THE CRUISE OF THE RAPID.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9402, 8 January 1894, Page 5

THE CRUISE OF THE RAPID.

VISIT TO THE GILBERT GROUP. On December 24 H.M.B. Rapid returned to Sydney after an absence of nine inonths, during which she has steamed and sailed 11,858 nautical miles. Leaving Fiji the Rapid visited the Ellice and Gilbert groups, which it will be remembered were recently placed under British protectorate by Sir John B. Thurston, High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, who appointed someone at each place visited to represent Her Majesty. Where no white trader's services were available some influential nigger was duly installed chief tax-gatherer. Each native has to contribute about one dollar's worth of copra annually as his share of the burden of established government under the Union Jack, and it is the business of these deputies appointed by the High Commissioner to see that no able-bodied savage escapes. The position of the tax-gatherer on some of these islands is not an enviable one, as the Kanaka mind does nob readily grasp the situation of making copra just to have a flag kept flying on a pole.. This much was made clear ;to the visitors at one or two islands, though it was surprising generally to notice the amount of intelligence many natives possessed on the subject of Government by man-of-war. At Butaritari, in the Gilberts, for instance, the King, a weighty monarch who turns the scale at 27 stone, and who was bitterly opposed to the work carried-out by H.M.s. Royalist in declaring a British protectorate, came on board the Rapid, and, with his son, tho heir presumptive, spent ft jolly time on the ship. He informed the- Rapid people that he was very glad Hor British Majesty had taken the croup, and that none would exceed tho King of ; Bißsritari, in the warmth of their allegiance to the Queen, one of whose photographs lie had carefully fastened to the side of his palace. While going round the islands the Rapid came upon one or two case* of native dirturbances, intertribal troubles, and managed to adjust them. At one island she seized a native who had' made himself very obnoxious to the inhabitants. His weakness was marrying, followed by the slaughter of the new wife.. He had despatched seven up to the time the Rapid appeared, and, being a near relative of a high chief, he could nob easily be brought to answer for his crimes." His plan was to put a coooanut on the head of his wife, and, after the example of William Tell and the apple, essay to bore a hole in it with a rifle bullet. His aim was defective, however, and tho experiment was followed by a funeral. This accident, as he called it, had happened so often that he became notorious amongst the relatives of the departed, and the Rapid interposed and deported the young man to a distent island. After completing the tour with Sir J. B. Thurston, the Rapid visited the Fiji Group and Samoa. At each of these places she was kept busy lookine alter native affairs or on administrative business, and she has now returned to Sydney for an overhaul. _ A few of her crew suffered from island sickness and sores, but, considering the long stay she has made in the tropica, the health of the crew was very good.