FIJI ITEMS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 4, Issue 201, 11 June 1881, Page 2

FIJI ITEMS.

j "We take the following items from I late files of the Fiji Tlum to hand per j Miranda : The attempt at cricket on tho Vagndaco j ground on Saturday afternoon was one of ; the weakest. The Club are getting no : hotter very fast, and it would not he j hail'a bad'idea if they were to sell all their cricketing paraphernalia and buv i marbles.

\ strange tale of cannibalism has boon ! reported wi thill lappa rent circumstantiality from the interior of Viti Leva. The native teacher stationed at Na Uran, on lining su]iplietl with fond by the townsfolk, wm horrified to observe that a portion of it was human flesh, lie at mice exclaimed against the food and refused to eat of it. Those who brought it to him admitted that it was human flesh, an I said that ihi.y had killed mid cooked tlio Government Officer and if he persisted in refining to eat they would kill and cook him also. In the tenor of his life he ate a little, but took the first opportunity of escaping from his tumble entertainers and made his way to the coast, where he reported the crime and subsequent aboniiI nation that had been perpetrated. The in-port seems almost inoredible, but is I given on authority which leaves but { little doubt as to its authenticity. Dissatisfaction with the Government of which i the oliicer was the representative is said : to have been the cause of the murd.-r. j A correspondent writes that at the | present time sickness is very prevalent amongst the natives at Lima Loin a. j Dr. Ohio was tip there some two months ago, and did not lose a single patient | during his stay, but since his departure I eleven deaths, chiefly amongst, children, i have occurred up to the first of May. The j sanitary arrangements' of the town are said to be abominable, noisome puddles and stagnant water forming the chief characteristic, a matter which our correspondent believes was reported on at some .length by Dr. Ohio at. the time of his visit. If/instead of devoting all attention to the collecting of taxes, the natives Welti compelled to drain their towns, cut. down I the brushwood surrounding them, and I mak" other arrangements for improving their sanitary condition, there can be no doubt that the death rate would not be nearly so high as it has been and still is. A communication from the Rev. Benjiunin Danks to the U'akly Aitroaiti; dated Tort Hunter, Feb. 2nd, conveys the serious intelligence that measles of a ; virulent type has broken out in New j Britain and is decimating the island. i The disease appears to piesunt all the . features of the pestilence that swept j away thirty thousand of the population j of Fiji in IS"), and the numerous deaths | arc causing great excitement amongst the I natives. Nothing is said as to the cause j of the outbreak, but the facts are. detailed i with graphic force. This is a most serious i matter, serious to the natives, in view of j the terrible results likely to ensue, and | serious for the. cause of Christianity, civiI ligation, and progress, which may' suffer I through European influence being usso'ciated, as in Fiji, with the introduction l of the epidemic, in which ciibu tin: missionaries and Mrttlers are mire to sutfer .through nny outburst of popular feeling.