A TERRIBLE MASSACRE BY BLACKS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 368, 20 January 1880, Page 2

A TERRIBLE MASSACRE BY BLACKS.

(From the Cooktown Courier.) The s.s. Ocean brings news of a horrible murder by the bloodthiraty savage's at Raine Island, situate about thirty miles from the mainland. The following particulars were received from Mr J. B. Robinson, partner of English, one of the murdered men. Mr Robinson writes from Raine Island under date Bth Norember, and states that he left the Island on the 26th October' last for the mainland for wood and water, intending to also visit the Piper Island lightship, where letters for the firm were sent, leaving behind J. H. English (his partner), two Chinamen, and six natives, of which three, including a gin and a boy, were taken off one of the islands south of Raine Island, and the remainder of the party had been secured from the mainland before starting. On his return to the Island on the sth of November, Robinson found only the boy, who informed him that on the night he had left Raine Island, English sent the two boys to sleep in the boat, so as to be able to bring her close into the shore in the morning, he (Robinson), having taken the dingy away, and the sharks being too numerous to swim off with safety. Eng-, lish then went to sleep in his grass hut, the two Chinamen sleeping in another hut, and the woman in the store-room, which the mainland natives also occupied. The latter, it appears, had a " corroboree" that night, after finishing which they committed the terrible deed, employing to accomplish their devilish purpose a knife used for cutting up turtle. Their work on shore done, the bloodhounds made for the boat, where they found the boy who has escaped to tell the mournful tale, who was asleep on th'e ;deqk, when he was stabbed in either his left or his right Bide, and thrown overboard for dead.. He, .however, recovered, and swam to ih# opposite side of the other boat,- which* wai at anchor. The other boy wai asleep below, but was not so fortunate, air he was killed before being thrown overboard. The camp was then'plundered, and before daylight the perpetrators of tWatrocioui crimes left with the boat. ' '■!;

From the above it will be .seen-.that thi slayers selected the hour of sleep forihiir murderous, -'work, and' Sobini6h 'sjtiitM. that he found thi bodiii of the rlctifii in

Tfhat was apparently' the position they when asleep. Death was Jno jldoubt instantaneous, as there were what Robinson calls " spear wounds" [behind each ear of the bodies, the knife before'; referred to being doubtless the , weapon employed to make these gashes, English's rifle and revolver, which the unfortunate man always kept at the, head of his bed, were .amongst the things taken singular that the" aavigirMi'd^np,attempt to carry off the'• second boat at anchor. ' The is perhaps to,be found in the smallnesscdj the party,, which was most. probab]|K formed.iohly of the! three blacks mainland,. In fact .there, were, -if the . surviving boy is to be credited, no others.- , to join them.

Mr' 1 Robinson.,states that the' native wotnan's, found in the iitoreroom, the ; other' 'four murdered, being, ■ English, two Chinamen, and the southern ! blackfell ow,, who was asleep on board one. . of the boats at anchor with tlf§ black boy, who escaped. The reason for putting to death the gin' and the blackfellow, and the attempt to do likewise with the black jieasj|y explained l?y, the fact that , the threejf were southern aboriginals, and the three slayers, natives of Cane York.

The Budget.which was brought into the Second Chamber, at' Brussels, on Novem-;. ber 27, estimates the expenditure <at 276,357,086f., and .the revenue at about 273, 490,060,f. ,;A conversion of Rentes willreduce the expenditure by. 2,351,110f., but this will still leave a deficit of 553,916f. . Lady Lucv Rabett'died on the 25th ult,. at her residence at Ryde, Isle of Wight. The deceased lady was .the. younger daughter of Edward, third Earl of Win* terton.

More : than 100 children have died in Johnstown, Pa,, and vicinity during six weeks from diptheria.

The death is announced of the Comtesse d'Andigne, widow of the Yendean General, at the age of 82. She studied painting under Robert Lefevre, and was an accomplished amateur.' ■ A boy eleven years of age, son of Mr Simon Leveson, ef Cheeth&m, died on. Saturday at the Manchester Clinical Hospital from hydrophobia. Deceased was bitten by a black retriever on the 3rd ult, !

A boy named Martain was drowned at Bamberbridge, near. Preston on Monday, while attempting to rescue a younger brother who had fallen through the ice. The brother was saved by some bystanders. Mr Roger Eykyn, formerly, member for Windsor, and now the Liberal candidate at the next election for Taunton, has been seriously ill, having caught cold while returning from his last visit to that town.

The Bristol Times learns that there is no truth in the statement made that the Prince of .Wiles has purchased a hunting box at Timbericombe, near Dunster, so as to be able to follow the Devon and Somerset stiJghounds,