THE NEW HEBRIDES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13985, 19 August 1907, Page 5

THE NEW HEBRIDES

ALLEGRO OUTRAGES,

CHARGES OP MURDER,

Pr«M Association—By Telegraph—Copyright,

MELBOURNE, August 17. The Rev. Mr Leggalt, a New Hcbridcan missionary, lias received a letter from Mr Roxburgh, one of the oldest settlers in the group, giving details of a number of outrages upon natives, for which the French,' Norwegian, German, and English residents woidd appear equally responsible. 11. is stated that in one instance a native boy was flogged to death for desertion, and another boy is alleged to have been brutally murdered. **piw sf » being taken to bring the cases tinder the notice of the Federal Government tor wieir representation to the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Lord Elgin).

TRAFFIC IN SPIRITS AND FIRE,

ARMS.

COMPLAINT AGAINST THE FRENCH.

MELBOURNE, August 17. Mr Lucas, manager foi Messrs Rums, Philp, and Co., has interviewed the Department of External Affairs in regard to the sale and distribution under French connivance of spirits, firearms, and ammunition in the New Hebrides. The difficulty hitherto, he states, lias been to induce tho French Government to use its influence to put a stop to the practice. There is a prohibition of the liquor and firearms traffic in the new Anglo-French Convention, but nothing had been done to enforce it. The agreement had been loyally observed by British steamers, but France had not only not- done its share, but advantage was taken of the British refusal to participate, in the traffic by vessels Hying the French flag to ship to the islands rifles, gunpowder, cartridges, and dynamite, besides large quantities of inferior spirits, mostlj gin. Meanwhile the trade was rapidly passing into French hands. Although the volume of trade in the New Hebrides bad in the last 12 months increased by 20 per cent, in exports and imports, since the convention Was adopted British trade had fallen off about 10 per cent. The native had a special fondness for gin and firearms, and while French vessels could supply these, native exports would be obtained and conveyed away by French vessels. Frenchmen were boasting of the pull they had over Australians, and were extending their operations to all parts of the islands. Mr Lucas described the liquor traffic there as a disgrace to~humanity.