UNREST AT SOLOMONS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2670, 27 November 1909, Page 6

UNREST AT SOLOMONS.

TRADERS FIRED UPON. SYDNEY. Nov. 16. The steamer Upolu, of Levers’ line, returned to Sydney last night after an extended cruise among the Pacific Islands. The steamer spent some weeks in the Solomon Group, and the officers found that a feeling of unrest prevailed among the natives in the western portion of the group. It was at Bagga, in these islands, that the Binskin family and several other natives were recently massacred 1 by the natives led by a notorious chief known as Sito. Traces of this tragedy were still visible when the Upolu visited the group. A punitive expedition had been organised and dispatched to the scene. The expedition consisted of 150 native police, in charge of one of the Deputy-Governors, and when they reached the scene it was found that the murderers had decamped and gone into hiding on the mountains, ' Since the massacre at Bagga the natives had been' on the warpath, and threatened some of the white residents living in the Western Solomons. At° a place called Fiasa. where two British traders are located, the natives attacked the station. They scrambled under the floor of the traders’ residence and fire-1 upon the two men, without, liOAvever, doing any injury. ■Passengers by the Upolu. state =,tnat .t h © hostilities of the natives had occasioned considerable alarm, and it was thought that some decisive action should be taken to check them; otherwise there will he further .bloodshed., Unfortunately, the British Commissioner's steamer was laid up with a broken shaft, and the officers were depending upon the launches and cutters to get about amongst the hostile natives. “The officials are doing their best, said one of the passengers by i the Upolu, “but it requires a stirong_ha.n<i to put down the trouble. Mr 0.. M. Woodford, the British Commissioner ot .the group, who has been to England on furlough is returning to the islands by the Makambo, and the white .residents look forward to his dealing with the ..troublesome tribes, i , .. . Some excitement lias been caused in the Solomon Group by, the arrest 01 two traders for selling firearms and ammunition to .'the- natives. - They, were • sentenced by the Court to be deported from the group.