RELIGIOUS WAR IN TONGA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 780, 11 February 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

RELIGIOUS WAR IN TONGA.

ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THE PREMIER. (united press association.) i Auckland, February 8. < The Jong expected religious war between the Wesleyan and Free Church factions has at last broken out. It has taken an unexpeoted form in the attempted, assassination of the Rev Shirley baker, the Premier, who founded the Free Church. Mr Baker was driving in his buggy with his ;daughtor Beatrice and sou Shirley. Close to their own house and the King’s Palace Mr Baker saw some men coming down under the fence with guns pointed at the baggy, and another man in the roadway, :who called to young Shirley, who immediately jumped down, and told the man to give him his gun. I “ Don’t fire,” he added. The men at the fence said, “ Wi wi ” (do it), and immediately he fired, hitting Shirley in the left arm. The horse sprang forward when the shot was fired, having been hit with one of, the slugs, and Miss Baker was thrown out, severely hurting her neck and back. Young Shirley called out, j“I am all ; right,” but his father must have seen his arm was shattered, and drove furiohsly off for the doctor. There was great i yelling out, and the whole town was soon on the scene armed with guns, axes, clubs, spears, &o» The doctor attending Shirley found he had reoeived a very sefere wound, inflicted by three or four slugs, which had entered the inside of the arm;and come out just below the joint. | Soipe people say they two reports almost simultaneously, and. support the jstatement by the fact that the lamp was struck ,in two places, and the splashboard of the buggy also. ! Miss Baker is wounded in the thigh in two places. I great many - boats have arrived full of armed men, also two schooners with gome 400 men. j There was a fearful yelling, and the warriors marched round about firing their guns in all directions. In the afternoon a crowd of them massed round the prison; yelling and beating in the doors with their, rifle butts. Four shots were fired which penetrated the prison :walls. On Saturday the Hapai warriors started out in gangs and plundered a number of towns and country villages,; so far as the Wesleyans are concerned, in the districts of Homa. The Wesleyans were stripped of all their homes. It is said the shopting was done by .escaped convicts, but Mr Baker says Europeans were concern,ed in it. ! The convicts suspected have' surrendered themselves, to prevent their female relatives being outraged, and punished in their stead. The Government schooner is waiting in harbor, fully armed with guns and ammunition,, ready to slip her cables and put to sea at once should any 'emergency -arise making it necessary for Mr Baker to decide upon going to Auckland in a burry. This, taken in connection with ihis request to have the English flag hoisted over his dwelling and property, gives; a good notion of what hiß ideas of his own personal Bafety are. Later. Another account of the Tonga affair says that the splashboard of Mr Baker’s buggy was riddled with ballets, and that Miss Baker sustained three wounds. One bullet in her thigh is not yet extracted.