NORFOLK ISLAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 April 1923, Page 3

NORFOLK ISLAND.

A HAPPY COMMUNITY. SYDNEY, March 28 Perhaps because the first arrivals in New South Wales depended to a considerable extent upon supplies from Norfolk Island to save them from starvation, and perhaps also because as the place of incarceration of the most desperate of the human jetsam cast upon these shores in the old convict days, some of the most sinister stories of the penal system have their venue there, Sydney always takes a soil of paternal interest in the affairs of that {'em of the Pacific. lint the report of its administration for the past year, which lias just been received, shows little sign of progress in the smnlll community except that, in contradistinction to many more prosperous places, its people remain happy am! contented. The massive stone buildings which were erected over a hundred years ago by the convicts have fallen into sad disrepair, and Ihe administrator tells us, as an example of their forlorn state, that with each shower Witter pours into the living rooms of the police quarters and post office. As the island experienced "continuous wet and stormy weather" during the past season wo may picture something of the joys of his Majesty's officers in this outpost of Empire 1 However, if the officers look to the Commonwealth, of which the island became a dependency in I'd I, materially to improve their lot it is to ho feared that, in these days ol public economy, they will have to 'how something more ceonoinit|allY attractive than imports totalling £l-1,312 against t*-1300 for exports, as is roPorled for the past year. The Administrator reports, however, that a good stream of tourists serves to reduce the wide margin very considerably. Tt says much for the climate of these Pacific region- that "20 ol the original Pitcairners, who came front Pitcairn Island in l s -3(>. are still living. and their average ago is ,-l. About 200 ol the Pitcairners, descendants of mutineers of the Humify, were transferred to Norfolk by the British (iovermnont, hut a number of them returned to their original island. The list given hv the Administrator of the original Pitcairners now on Norfolk contains several Adamses the name taken by the sole white survivor of the mutual massacres of mutineers and Tahitians 130 years ago.