7

J\.*"™" Q. •>

[Trahslation.] To Mr. Lawrence. Mission House, Eakaanga, 7th February, 1893. Salutations to you and to Mrs. Lawrence and child, in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is I, Banaba, that am telling you what has happened in this land. Ten people went away in boats (four men, three women, and three children) —namely, Taupe and his household. Ask Butaura, who knows of this trouble. It is an old trouble between Jese and Taupe. It has been a thorny root for many years', and made enmities spring from even truthful words. Jese and Taupe are related to one another. One is the elder and the other the younger in the Ariki's family of Fakaho. The title of Ariki is with Jese, he being the elder. After some time Taupe wished to be Ariki, but his tribe would not agree. That is the reason why Taupe went to Tahiti, to put Manihiki and Eakaanga into the hands of the French. Jese and Taupe have lived in enmity, the one with the other, to the present time. They were of a like evil mind to one another, and treated each other as strangers. The beginning of the last trouble was this : Jese was staying at Tukao, and one day said he would take some food from the place he was then living in. This saying was taken to Taupe, and was made very bad in the mouth of the word-bearer. By him Taupe's heart was made sore, and he became very angry, and went to Jese. He found Jese sleeping on a bed, which he lifted up, so that Jese fell off, and his neck was hurt, but not very badly. When this was known at Tauunu the police came over from that place to judge Taupe. His fine was $50, and to be expelled from Jese's lands. The fine was paid; and then Taupe thought, "What is the use of my staying on the island any longer? It will be better for me to go away to sea and die." He was firm in his purpose, and made ready his boats to go away. When the people of Tauunu heard of this, and that Taupe was making ready to go away, they sent a boat to Eakaanga asking the people there to let them know their thoughts in this matter. Eakaanga answered not to let Taupe go away to sea, but to wait until the Penrhyn schooner had left. Then they could see further into this trouble. Tauunu would not agree to this. They wished it to be seen into at once, as it was a case in which a man was going away to die. At last they said, " Let this be the end. Let Taupe stay." To this they added that the blame would rest on Eakaanga if Taupe went back to Jese's lands and disputed as to being Ariki, and trouble then followed. Hearing these words, Eakaanga went to Tukao, and put Taupe into his boats with his household and property, and sent them away to sea. I make this known to you, because the trouble is not yet settled between Tauunu and Eakaanga. Enough. From Banaba.

No. 7. SEIZURE OF THE BRITISH SCHOONER " NORVAL " AT PENRHYN ISLAND. The British Ebsident, Earotonga, to His Excellency the Governor. (No. 3, 1893.) My Lord, — British Eesidency, Earotonga, 28th February, 1893. I have the honour to inform your Excellency that the ketch " Agnes Martin " arrived here on the 18th instant from Penrhyn Island, and brought intelligence of the seizure, on the 4th December, 1892, by the Hau (local government) of that island, of the British schooner " Norval," of Auckland, and of the forcible detention of Mr. Thomas Harries, the master of the vessel. The " Norval," according to Mr. Harries's statement, was seized when at sea a mile and a half to two miles from the island, and taken into the lagoon, where she was still lying moored when the " Agnes Martin " left on the Ist February. She was left in charge of the master, who is living on board with the crew. They are at liberty, but he, though allowed to move about as he likes, is prevented from leaving the island. The action of the Hau results from a claim for $2,000 Chilian currency made by them upon the master in a dispute concerning the purchase of a vessel for them, and is avowedly taken in expectation of the arrival of one of Her Majesty's ships, which, I am informed, are in the habit of paying an annual visit to the island. Penrhyn is, I believe, a British possession, and included in the Pacific naval station. It is known to the natives as Mangarongaro, and sometimes as Tongareva, and is about equidistant from Earotonga and Tahiti. Its trade is chiefly with Earotonga, but the steamer " Archer" has occasionally visited the island for trading purposes from Sydney. There are upon the island—or, rather, on the reef around the lagoon—two settlements. The north-eastern settlement is called Te Tautua; the western is called Omoka. I do not know under what authority the local government is formed, or what its position may be, except that it consists entirely of natives. A Hau, or native government, in some form exists in all these islands. That of Penrhyn is probably the one that must have existed when the British flag was hoisted on the island. The circumstances attending the original dispute between the Hau and Harries were investigated by Judge Tepou (of Avarua, in Earotonga), on a complaint laid before him by representatives of the Hau on the 23rd September, 1892. The Hau sought to recover $3,603 paid by them to Harries, as they alleged, on false representations. Mr. Harries is domiciled at Avarua, and married to a Barotongan native. The money in dispute was also then in Avarua, and there seemed to me no doubt of the case being within Tepou's jurisdiction. Having watched the proceedings taken before Judge Tepou, and having since received (on the 21st instant) the copy of a statement prepared at Penrhyn by Mr. Harries for the expected visit of