FIJI NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5869, 8 September 1880, Page 3

FIJI NEWS.

By the s,s. Rotomahana we have Fiji files to the 14th ultimo, from which we make the following extracts:—

Another victim to the treachery of savages haa paid with his life the penalty of an overweening confidence. Poor Nicholl, lately the Government agent of the Dauntless, succumbed on the 13th to the numerous wounds inflicted upou him by an unseen foe. From the first his recovery had been deemed almost hopeless. The Solomon Islander is out of danger, and the Fijian boy Johnny has recovered sufficiently to accompany the Wolverene to the scene of the attack. Commodore Wil. son sailed for Apai, where ha punished the natives for tho Dauntless outrage, after which he sailed for New Caledonia. It is stated that the Commodore prefers serious charges against the schooner Aurora, of New Caledonia, for the manner in which her crew had acted towards the natives of Api, and that there was reason to fear that the affair of the Dauntless arose out of these proceedings. The schooner Dauntless, Captain Jones, having shipped new men in place of those killed and wounded at Api, and taken Mr. Leslie as the new Government agent oa board, has left for the new Hebrides. ■

H.M.S. ship-of-war Emerald arrived at Levuka on the 12th ult.

Among recent visitors to Fiji,are meationed Mr. Billyard, father-in-law of the lata and much regretted Commodore GoodenoUgh, accompanied by some of his family, also, Mr. Julian Thomas, who writes under the nom de plume of the " Vagabond," who has vagabondised as far as Fiji, where he haa received a hearty welcome.

Mr. D. L. Murdoch, the general manager of the Bank of .New Zealand, made a tour of the Windward Islands in the steamer Porpoise, aud expressed himself as highly delighted with all that he saw in that portion of the group. The natives are getting some benefit apparently from the refund of their contribution to the native taxation scheme. At Lotnai Viti the amount handed to them is some £1400. . , Tho barque Frederick Hartwig,' brought as part of her cargo a complete machinery plant for the manufacture of sugar. The importer is Dr. Chalmers, who intends it for a mill to be erected by him on bis property at Raki Baki, Ka Coast, Viti Levu. The machinery is said to possess the'very newest appliances for the manufacture of sugar; and another gentleman, Mr.. tstanlake Lee, of Navua, has so high Van opiiion'of it, that he has ordered similar machinery for a sugar factory, of ;. his owe. The rate at which it > can manufacture tho article : is- five ■ tons in ten hours, or a half ton • per ; hour. The excellent bags, which at' the present time are to pack 'thu manufactured sugar in, are imported from Mada« gascar; but tho palm,'from which the bag material is obtained,.,has been ; introduced into this country by. the, .tlon.j. £. Thurston, and ia thriving ; so that, at no very distant day, the,bag .manufacture will be undertaken on the spot. At such work the Fijians are very expert—witness their mats, baskets, &c.—and, with the' proper material in their hands, tliero caiT beino question ef i their turning out a' class 1 of-bags equal'to that now in use.