THE EARL OF BELMOREsaid, that he rose to put a Question in the terms of the Notice that he had given, to the noble Earl the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with reference to the South Sea Island Papers lately distributed, As to whether any further communications of importance have been received by Her Majesty's Government upon the subject, particularly as relates to the disposal of the prisoners convicted at Sydney of murder on board the brig Carl; and, if so, whether he has any objection to lay the Papers on the Table of the House? With regard to the latter part of the Question, he thought their Lordships would consider that he was right in asking for the Papers, subject to their being no objection to producing them. Pro- 1694 bably some of them might consist of Minutes of the Executive Council of New South Wales, and sometimes it was objectionable that such Papers, when relating to capital cases, should be laid before Parliament, because their publication might tend to produce embarrassment in the colony. With regard to the Papers lately distributed, he wished to make a few remarks. The first part of them repeated some of the information which he had sent home before he left New South Wales, and to which he drew attention last Session. In another part was contained the reports of naval officers who were ordered to inquire into the statements made after the murder of Bishop Patterson. It appeared that in accordance with a suggestion which he (the Earl of Belmore) made to Commodore Stirling, that officer had written to the Admiral in China, who had sent a ship of war down to the islands near the line. This ship—the Barrosa—was met by the Blanche, which had been sent up from Sydney, and there were interesting Reports from the officers commanding them—Captains Moore and Simpson—upon the labour trade and skull-hunting. With regard to Captain Hayes, the notorious pirate, whose name had been before mentioned in connection with this matter, it appeared that the Barrosa had only missed capturing him by a single day, having left Mulgrave Island one day whilst he arrived there the next. He had been in the custody of the captain of an American man-of-war—the Narraganset—but was released. In one part of the Papers, the reason given was, that the British Consul at Samoa had failed to bring charges against him which would hold water, although in another place that gentleman expressed great surprise at his having been released. With regard to skull-hunting, although it was admitted that it prevailed amongst the natives of the Solomon Islands, yet there seemed reason to think that no white man had taken part in it. Captain Moresby, of H.M.S. Basilisk, it was true, heard from a native pupil of the Melanesian Mission at Norfolk Island, the same story which the Rev. Mr. Brooke told the year before last, at the time of Bishop Patterson's murder; but, on the other hand, Captain Simpson could find no trace of white men having been engaged in it. The reasons he gave for his belief were, 1695 shortly, that it would not pay. Mr. Brooke had surmised that the captains of British ships had taken war parties in their vessels to procure the heads of their enemies, in return for being allowed to trade—tortoiseshell being the article of trade. But he (Captain Simpson) found that tortoiseshell could only be collected in small quantities at any one place—a few pieces at a time, as was shown by the case of a fine of two tons of tortoiseshell, which had been inflicted by Captain Montgomerie, of H.M.S. Blanche, on the inhabitants of an island who had murdered the crew of the Marion Renny, but which fine had never been collected, and which Captain Simpson altered to a punishment of a different sort. He (the Earl of Belmore) should not hesitate to accept this view, but for the reason that in the case of the Carl a naval officer had boarded her a few days after the massacre on board that ship had taken place, and could find nothing to excite suspicion, and had passed her as having all correct; and if one naval officer had been deceived in one case, so might a second be also in another. As regarded kidnapping, Captain Moresby, of H.M.S. Basilisk, thought that amongst the islands where his cruise had extended, it had entirely ceased, as far as procuring men by force went. He thought that men were still procured by fraud, but that the evil was gradually curing itself. Captain Simpson had found that it had ceased amongst the Caroline, Marshall, and Solomon groups, but that it still continued amongst the Gilbert group. On the whole, he (the Earl of Belmore) hoped that though it had not been entirely put down, yet that it had been checked. A right rev. Prelate (the Bishop of Lichfield) had mentioned to him that he had heard from his friends of the Melanesian Mission, that they had met but one labour ship during their last cruise for every ten the preceding year. There was one subject as to which he should like information to be given. As he had before stated, Captain Montgomerie, of H.M.S. Blanche, had inflicted a fine of a large quantity of tortoiseshell on the inhabitants of an island, as retribution for the murder of the crew of the Marion Renny. Captain Simpson, on arriving at the island three years afterwards, found that the fine had not been collected; and, instead of 1696 it, he exacted from two of the chiefs a promise that they would execute a third chief, who was responsible for the murder of the crew. This, it appeared, had since been done. Commodore Stirling said that this was the only part of Captain Simpson's conduct of which he had not approved; and he (the Earl of Belmore) wished to know what opinion Her Majesty's Government had expressed on the subject. Without committing himself to an opinion, he was inclined to think that it was better to exact retribution from the man who was, there seemed little doubt, morally responsible for the murder of 22 white people rather than adopt the old plan of retribution by shelling a defenceless village. As regarded the case of the Carl, it appeared by the Papers that two men had been found guilty at Sydney of murder, on board that ship, and had been sentenced to death. This sentence had, it was known, been commuted; but the Correspondence contained in the Papers stopped short of giving any information on that point, and he should be glad if the Papers he had given Notice to move for could include the despatch giving the reasons for such commutation, and the reply of the noble Earl. Two other men, named Mount and Morris, had been found guilty of manslaughter at Melbourne, but the Papers likewise stopped short of giving any information as to the sentences passed upon them. There was only one other matter to which he need allude, and that was the position of the British Consul towards the Fijian Government. It might be premature to express an opinion at present, and he understood that the new Consul and the new Commodore had orders to inquire and report on the state of affairs. The noble Earl had stated on a former occasion that the ultimate recognition of the Government, at present recognized as a de facto one, would a good deal depend upon how it behaved with respect to the suppression of kidnapping. From what appeared in the Papers, he did not anticipate very much from its action, for if all that was stated in the despatches of the late Consul was true, it would appear that one at least of the Members of that Government was implicated in some of the irregularities of the labour traffic. He begged to put the Question of which he had given Notice.
THE EARL OF KIMBERLEYsaid, he hoped the noble Earl would excuse him, if he abstained from following him into certain matters he had touched upon, and which were not included in his Notice. With regard to the proceedings in connection with the ship Carl, and the persons belonging to her who had been convicted of murder, it was quite true the Papers presented did not bring the intelligence down to that point at which they would give information of the sentences that had been passed upon the persons convicted. But at the same time, the only information in his possession on the subject of the commutation of the sentences passed on the persons found guilty of the atrocious proceedings referred to was contained in a despatch from Sir Hercules Robinson, the Governor of New South Wales, dated the 30th of December, 1872, in which he said—
The capital sentences passed upon Dowden and Armstrong, the two men convicted of murdering a large number of Polynesians on board the brig Carl, have been commuted to penal servitude for life—the first three years in irons. It was the opinion of the Executive Council—in which I concurred—that it would have born improper to have executed these men, seeing that they were in the service and acting under the orders of Dr. Murray, the owner of the brig; and that he, the instigator and most active perpetrator of the murders, had escaped all punishment by being accepted as Queen's evidence against his own employés.With respect to the prisoners Mount and Morris, who were convicted of manslaughter before the Supreme Court of Victoria, and sentenced to penal servitude for 15 years, some technical question had arisen which had been referred to the Law Officers in the Colony; and he would not object to lay Papers on that subject upon the Table when he received further information. He could assure his noble Friend that with regard to the labour traffic, measures had been taken to send back to their homes those islanders who had been induced to enter into engagements under false pretences, and he had reason to believe that the officers intrusted with that duty were doing their utmost to carry it out to a successful issue. At present the Papers were in a very incomplete state, and it was undesirable to add to them; but as soon as they were complete further Papers would be presented.
THE EARL OF BELMORE,in reply, said, that after what had fallen from 1698 the noble Earl, it would not be proper for him to press his Motion. Very likely an opportunity would occur next Session of renewing the discussion on this subject. As regarded Dr. Murray, who had been admitted as approver, the more that came out about him the worse he appeared to be. When he first told his story to the late Consul at Levuka (Mr. March), he of course made the best story for himself, and even at the trial at Sydney the whole truth did not come out about him. But at the trial of Mount and Morris at Melbourne, it appeared that Dr. Murray had, not in a moment of conflict, but after everything was quiet, deliberately fired several shots from his revolver through holes bored with an augur in a bulk-head in the hold of the ship amongst the natives confined within. Anything more cold-blooded had probably never been heard of since the world existed.