Outlaw?

Who Was The

JN May, 1872, before the Kidnapping 1 Act was passed in Australia Can tain John Moresby sailed ’ under orders from Sydney in HMS “Basilisk” for the South Seas, to investigate the evils of the labour traffic- and on his way from the Ellice Group through the New Hebrides, he anchored off Black Beach, Tanna Island, famous for many lawless affravs in the nnst , P , rollfw- 6 ai }chorage lay the large cotton P* an of (as described by Captain Moresby) “one of the most notorious of these lawless men”, who had been con nected with the worst crimes of kid napping; and who, like others of his kind, had settled with reckless courage in these savage islands, defending himself

and his right of possession merely by the terror he inspired.

When the “Basilisk” dropped anchor, the lawless man came on board to pay his respects; and, wrote Captain Moresby, “I looked with curiosity on this specimen of a class of men who, with all their great faults, possess many of the rough strong virtues of Englishmen. He was a big, burly, middle-aged man, with a large red beard and moustache, a small nose, surmounted by light, restless blue eyes, and a low forehead, which be tokened the power to will and do without regard to consequences.”

Walking with difficulty, owing to his many gunshot wounds, he led Captain Moresby and his party up the steep cliffs past gangs of labourers, through his clearing, to his small wooden house, stand ing on a rise, and surrounded by a fence to protect it from assaults; and, as they reached the steps, he entered first, then turned and gave them a hearty welcome.

As they sat and talked it was noticed that loaded guns hung around the room.

These, and the pistols in his belt, showed that he left nothing to chance, and was ready for any emergency.

When questioned about his labourers, he assured Captain Moresby that he could secure as many as he wished with out resorting to kidnapping, and that he returned them at the end of one year, paying them with trade or a few muskets for their service. His chief difficulty, he explained, lay with the hill people, who raided him continually, and without provocation.

He was reticent in regard to his former life. “If reports were true,” stated Cap tain Moresby, “it had been a wild and wicked one.” But, as there was no specific charge against him, and his labourers seemed happy and well fed, Captain Moresby took his leave, feeling (he wrote) “admiration for his indomitable pluck, although of a vagabond kind”.

As they passed through the clearings, on their way to the beach, it could be seen that he had 30 or so acres in full bearing, of very fine cotton, 50 or 60 acres more had been cleared ready for further cultivation, and some thousands of acres of grasslands stretched in the rear, nominally in his possession. “There can be no doubt” commented Captain Moresby, “of this man’s ultimate wealth, if he can secure his life; but, that is the question.”

Near the cliffs, they nassed a neat and small enclosure.

“What is this?’ asked the Captain.

“My partner’s grave, sir” was the answer. “He was shot there, where he is buried, some months ago, by the hill people.”

Asked the reason, he replied, curtly: “They owed him a grudge for something or another.”

Not wishing to press the question, as the matter had already been decided and was evidently an unpleasant one, the subject was dropped.

Captain Moresby boarded the “Basilisk” and left for Aneityum Island and, later, New Caledonia, having, as stated, safely visited 53 islands in the course of his cruise, “by the goodness of Providence”. —Mollie Lett.

Mr. W. Paton, assistant manager of the “Lady Lever” plantation in BSI, has re signed and returned to Sydney.

M. G. des Granges, lawyer at Port Vila and president of the French Agri cultural Syndicate, who was against the Free French movement when New Heb rides rallied to de Gaulle, and who there fore went to Indo-China, has now re turned, having assured the authorities that his sympathies are now with the Free French. He described his Indo- Chinese experiences as “an evil memory”.