RELIGIOUS WAR IN TONGA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5846, 8 February 1887, Page 3

RELIGIOUS WAR IN TONGA.

* [Pkb Press Association.] ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE REV SHIRLEY BAKER. AN EXCITING SCENE. THE WOBK OF PLUNDERING GANGS. AUCKLAND, Feb. 8. News from Tonga indicates that the i long-expected religious war between the Wesleyan and Free Church adherents has at last broken out. It has taken the unexpected form of the attempted assassination of the Rev Shirley Baker, Premier, who founded the Free Church. On Thursday evening, Jan. 13, about 7.30, as Mr Baker was driving in bis buggy with his daughter Beatrice, and his son Shirley, close to their own house and the King's palace, Mr Baker saw come men coming down > under a fence with guns pointed at the : buggy ;. and there was another man in the roadway. He called to- Shirley, who immediately jumped down, and told the man to give up his gun r and paid, " Don't fire." The man at the fence said, " Wi wi" (do it). Immediately the man fired, bitting Shirley in the left arm. The men at the fence were peering round, trying to- get a sight at Baker ;. but either the carriage lamps dazed them, or else they were afraid of hitting; Mies Baker. Anyhow they did not fire, and all cleared away. The horse sprang forward when the Bhot was fired, having been hit with ! one of the slugs, and Miss Baker was thrown' out,, severely hutting her neck and back. Shirley said, " I tun all right," but his father must have seen his arm shattered, and drove furiously off for a doctor. There waa great yelling, and the whole town was soon on the scene, armed with' guns, axes, clubs, spears, &c. The doctor attending Shirley found that he had received a very severe wound, inflicted' by three or foar slugs, which had entered the inside of the arm. and oome out jaat below the joint. Somo people say they heard two reports almost simultaneously, and' in support of this statement there i# the' fact that a lamp was- struck in two places, and the splashboard of the buggy also. Miss Baker waa wounded in, the tkigh in two 'places. : A great many boats have arrived full of , armed men;: alaotwo schooners with some 400 men. There wa&a.fearf uJ yelling, and the^ warriors marched round about, firing their guns in all directions. In the afternoon a crowd of them.- massed round the prison, jelling, and beating in the doors with their rifle butts. Pour shots were fired, which penetrated the prison walls. On Saturday, the Hoobi warriors started out in gangs and plundered in the town and couatry villages. So far as the Wesleyans are concerned, in the districts of Hornathey were stripped of all their possessions,, and turned out of their homes. It is said the shooting was done by escaped convicts ; but Baker says Europeans were concerned in it. The convicts suspected have surrendered themBelves, to prevent their female relations being outraged and punished in their stead. A Government schooner is waiting in the harbour, fully armed with guns and ammunition, and with 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 flag hoisted over his dwelling and property, gives good notice ef what his ideas of his own personal safety are. Another account of the Tonga affair says the Bplash- board of Mr Baker's buggy was riddled with bullets, and Miss Baker sustained three wounds, one bullet in her thigh not having yet been extracted.