LATEST NEWS FROM THE FIJI ISLANDS.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 301, 18 July 1868, Page 3

LATEST NEWS FROM THE FIJI ISLANDS.

ESTABLISHMENT OP A BANKING MONOPOLY AS A GOVEENMENT. The Sydney Morning Herald's Fiji correspondent states that the Albion, s. 8., arrived there on the 22nd May. Messrs Brewer and Evans, as agents for the Melbourne company, have concluded arrangements with King Thakambau, who has agreed to grant them 20,000 acres, and the pre-emptive right over the entire territory. He also concedes to company the banking monopoly they required, and also the right to make laws and impose Customs duties over all the lands that may be acquired by charter. He first consented to give the right to impose the Customs duties over all the islands, but the white settlers protesting, through the British Consul, curtailed of the clause. The settlers also protested against the whole arrangement, as interfering with the rights they had already acquired through the purchase and settlement of different portions of the islands. The agents for the company guarantee to assist King Thakambau in the defence of his territory, and pay the American debt at present held over it. They further agree to give the King an annuity of £2OO, and to continue the same to his son, who succeeds him. The King's other son is to be taken to Melbourne to be educated, at the company's expense. The company's agents have already selected 100,000 acres on the largest island, which is mentioned in Colonel Smyth s report as having a fine harbor, and being the best locality for a white settlement. The Sydney Morning Herald denounces the arrangement as dangerous and unconstitutional. It is stated that 4000 bales of cot ton will be exported from Fiji this season.

The war in the Fijis.—The West Coast Times of June 26th, publishes part of a private letter received from the Fijis, from which we extract the following : —" The war undertaken hy King Thakambau to punish the murderers of the native ministers, who were not only killed but eaten, still continues. The main body of the army is under the command of the Chief Judge, Bollu Sananaca, who is reckoned the best general in the island. The division has succeeded in taking nine towns, killing great numbers of the rebels, besides taking other prisoners ; but on the otherhand, Tui Koko, the second commander, has suffered a defeat. This state of things is not at all pleasant when you are living in the middle of the hostile armies, and have to keep right with both parties. Every now and then one party challenges another to fight, which is done by sending a cartel in the shape of a picked thigh bone."

Some ten days or a fortnight ago a man was reported to have been lost in the bush somewhere in the neighborhood of No Town, up the River Grey, but it was supposed by his mates that he had returned towards the Grey, as he had expressed his unwillingness to proceed. It appears however that the poor fellow, instead of retracing his steps to the river, had missed his way and wandered into the bush, there to be irretrievably lost, as his body was found the other day in a steep gully about three miles from the town, at the door of a tent which the deceased had just been able to pitch. There is little doubt that the unfortunate wayfarer had died of absolute starvation, as his mouth was found full of fern leaves, a quantity of which was also clenched in his hands. His eyes had been pecked out by Maori hens, and his face was mutilated by rats, so much so as to render identification almost impossible. The body was found by a party of prospectors, and was conveyed by them to the nearest store, there to await a coroner's inquiry. The Melbourne Evening Star says : —" The most skilful can be mistaken. It is said that a well-known medical practitioner, living not a hundred miles from Collins-street, and who is reputed as the greatest authority on special diseases, had a patient on whom, after repeated consultations, be proposed operations for ' ovariotomy.' The fee demanded was £IOO guineas. The husband requested delay of a week, as he

was not prepared to deposit this larj/e sum at so short a notice. Nature, however, the greatest healer of all ailments, stepped in, and, lo ! to the husband's delight, and horror of the infallible practitioner, the tumour turned out to be another ' phantom,' and the first-named gentleman found himself the father of a handsome child. He purposes presenting a full length photograph of his infant, in lieu of the orthodox claret-jug, to his wife's medical a-ttendant."

SHOCKING/ AtBOCITIES IN CHILE.— The morals of Chile are not improving, judging from the following extract from the West Coast Mail : —At Araueania a frightful crime as been committed which has caused a great sensation among all classes. Some wretches managed to introduce themselves, in the middle of the night, into the house of an Indian named Traugu, situated near the new fort of Huequen, about a league distant from Anglo, where only women and children were sleeping, and committed the following atrocities. A woman of fifty years of age killed by cutting her throat, one of twenty years clubbed to death ; child at the breast and a two others of eight and ten, respectively ditto, (the latter still breathed, but there were few hopes of his surviving) ; another woman of twenty years of age was left unconscious, and another managed to escape with life but horribly maltreated. Over fifteen persons have been arrested on suspicion, among others the officer in charge of the fort at Huequen; and judging from the activity displayed by the authorities, there is reason to believe the criminals will soon be discovered.—On the 26th ultimo the body of a man was taken to the prison of Los Anjelos, who had been stabbedto death the night before in the new town-ship of Pailihue. Nothing is known of the perpetrator or other particulars of the crime. Since the above crime was discovered traces of another have come to light, the body of a man covered with stabbs having been found in the road o Rucadillan. It has transpired that the deceased's name is Nova, who had disappeared the day before, but nothing else is known concerning the murder. The deceased's face had been partially consnmed by birds of prey at at the time he was discovered. Robberies especially of cattle, have become so general on the frontier that a potition has been forwarded through the Intendente to the Government, praying for a special and seveye law for Aracuo against this latter crime. Scottish Pkudence.—When the late Mr Telford, the engineer, (says Mr Smiles) made his last visit to his native valley of Eskdale, where he had in earley life worked as a mason, he called upon his former friends to recount with them the incidents of their youth. He was declared to be the same "canty" fellow as ever, and, though he had risen greatly in the world, he was " not a bit set up." He found une of his old fellow-workmen, Prank Beattie, become the principal inn-keeper of the place. "What have you made of your nell and chisels ?'; asked Telford. " Oh," replied Beattie' " they are all dispersed—perhaps lost." " I have taken better care of mine ,' said Telford ; " I have them all locked up iu a room at Shrewsbury, as well as my old working clothes and leather apron : you know one can never tell what may happen." I do not care a bit about woman's tears, since I have ascertained from Paraday—a glorious fellow that—that tears are merely chloride of sodium carbonate of lime, and general folly. I do not know whether I have the chemicals quite right; but, at any rate, since I have heard of this chemical analysis, I do not care for tears. A Libel Case at San Prancisco.—A most extraordinary verdict has been given against the San Prancisco Bulletin in a libel suit. The News Letter says in regard to it: —" The verdict in the Bulletin libel case is astounding—it is more than astonishing. Six thousand dollars to a fence carpenter for saying 'he was active in certain squatter riots in the Western addition;' and for a typographical mistake which, after he was tried for* the crime of embracery, printed for 'not guilty* the ' verdict guilty,' which was corrected, explained, and apologised for in the next issue of the Bulletin. Pence carpenters hav riz in the market, and we are glad to know that the reputation of anybody in San Francisco is worth so much."

Matrimonial advertisements peculiarities. A down-easter advertises his wife thus:—

On the sixteenth of July, on the night of Monday, Eloped from her husband the wife of John G-rundy; His grief for her absence each day growing deeper. Should any one find her, he begs them to —keep her.