ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1551, 10 February 1887, Page 3

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION.

Auckland, Feb. 8. News from Tonga indicates that the long expected religious war between the Wesleyan Church and Free Church has at last broken out, and has taken the unexpected form of the attempted assassination of the Rot. Shirley Baker, the Premier, who founded the Free Church.. On Thursday, January 13th, about7.3o p.m., as Mr Baker was driving in his buggy with his daughter Beatrice and his son Shirley, close to their own bouse and the King’s Palace, Mr. Baker saw some men coming down under the fence with guns pointed at the buggy, and another mao in the roadway. He called to Shirley, who immediately jumped down, and told the man to give him his gun, and said "Hont fire." The man at the fence said “ Wi wi (do it immediately). He fired, bitting Shirley on the left arm. The men at the fence were pressing round trying to get a shot at Baker, but either the carriage lamp dazed them, or else they were afraid of hitting Miss Baker, Anyhow they did not fire and all cleared away. The horse sprang forward when the shot was fired, having been hit by one of the slugs. Miss Baker was thrown out and severely hurt her neck and back. , Shirley said, “I am all tight,” but dig father must have seen his arm shattered, and drove furiously off for a doctor. There was great yelling, and the whole town was soon on the scene armed with guns, axes, clubs, spears, etc. The doctor attending Shirley found that he had received a very seven! wound inflicted by three or four slugs, which had entered the inside of his arm, and came out just below the joint. Some people say they heard two reports almost simuU taneously, and support the statement by the fact that the lamp was struck in two places, and the splashboard of the buggy also. Miss Baker was wounded in the thigh in two places. A great many boats have arrived fnll of aimed men, also two schooners with some 400 men. 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 rift) butts. Four shots were fired which penetrated the prison walls. On Saturday the Hoabi warriors started out in gangs and plundered a number of towns and country villages so fur as Wesleyans are concerned. In the district of Homa the Wesleyans were stripped of all their possessions and famed pat of their houses. It is said that the shooting was dene by escaped convicts, but Mr Baker says Europeans were concerned in it. The convicts suspected have surlendered themselves to prevent their female relatives being outraged and punished in their stead. The Government schooner is waning in the harbor, fully armed with guos aod ammunitipn, and cables ready to slip and put to sea at once should any emergency arise making it necessary for Mr Baker to decide upon going to Auckland in a hurry. This, taken in connection with his request to have the English fag hoisted over his dwelling and property, gives good notice of what his ideas of his own personal safety are. Another account of the Tonga affair says that the splashboard of Mr Baker’s buggy was riddled with bullets, and th«t Miss Baker sustained three woonds. One bullet in her thigh is not yet extracted. Captain Lane, of the schooner M&ile, after mentioning that it is improbable that the aeal perpetrators of the outrage have been arrested, mentions the fact that Mr Moulton (who conducts the College) and his wite and other Wesleyans Lave been fired at, and goes on to say “ On the 23rd, Wesleyans from tbe town

of Honora came in, having been driven 1 away from their homes and their property by Government men. Notwithstanding the persecutions, the Wesleyan services in the College were crowded, Mr I|aker says Europeans are concerned in the ■hooting, t»ut so far as Captain popld (earn, no European did pore thap to pall thp atteptiop of the natives to some para T graphs in the papers recounting the assassinations and told the natives that was the way tyrants were served, There is ' universal dissatisfaction froni end to end of the kingdom. Everything goes Government, which takes two*thirds oi

the entire p t ,.,, of tho country, so that (])» '•:( ves ar i.-(lucod to povcrtv ;i „ the tr .'tp'9 mind, y®t nfraid to spoaK, lest it should be worse for them. It is impossih u things can go on any longer as they have been doi"7. If the King should die Mr Baker's life would not be worth an hour’s purchase. Mr Balor attributes the bad times to the failure of the nnt crop, but we have hud several failures during the pa*t few years, but never suffered like this, but then Government took less than half they do now, and then the tax was often remitted after the hurricanes. Population, too, is largely decreasing. As the people become disheartened they succumb to disease, and they dare not speak, everything is done in the King’s name, who is now in hie dotag.” The Tongan correspondent of the Herald gives another version of the Tongan trouble. He says :—lt is a true saying “ murder will out,” and several in connection with the matter having turned King's evidence, it has placed placed Government in a position not only to prosecute the murders, but many of their accomplices, and has reyealed n state of things with regard to Mr Moulton’s followers which will astonish the world. One of them is said to be the prime mover of the cause. Mr Moulton’s friends are suspected of not only having devised the scheme, but having laid out a plan, which was to have been followed by civil war inland, and although two days after the affair they literally proclaimed war yet the 'ringleaders being caught tliejco wards soon returned to their homes. As the Government found the matter more serious than it was at first supposed they have sworn officials to «ecresy, lest people, who are intensely excited, should take the matter into their own hands and proclaim Lynch law. So far notwithstanding there are some 700 fighting men over here from Haapi and Navatau, what they have- done is to kill a few pigs belonging to Mr Moulton and his adherents.