ON PITCAIRN ISLAND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 54, 28 October 1912, Page 6

ON PITCAIRN ISLAND.

o SEVENTH DAY ADVENTISTS. EFFECT OF INTERMARRIAGE. (Received 9.20 a.m.) The Rev. Mr Carey, a Scvcr/th Day Adventist missionary, returmid after several years at Pitcairn Island, where he also acted as school teacher and physician. He states that there are 148 people on the island (71 males and 77 females). The original settlers went there as adherents of the Church of England, hut have now adopted Seventh Day tenets. They are a happy, hospitable, and social people, passionately fond of music. The communal system does not, as often supposed, exist on the island. Each one has a little plot and help one another, but if a man loafs ho suffers. The island produces fruits and other crops. There are a large number of goats, one horse, and no oxen. There arc no intoxicating liquors, and only two Americans who recently joined the community use tobacco. Inter marriage is having a very injurious effect morally and physically. Every couple is more or less related. Though greatly attached to the island, Mr Carey regards it as imperative in their own interests that they should leave and be scattered in Australia or elsewhere.