Norfolk Is. Notes.

From Our Own Correspondent.

N.I., April 25.

IN July our present administrator (Colonel A. J. Bennett) will retire, and his place will be taken by Cap tain Finney, who comes to us from Papua, from which territory we have of recent years drawn quite an appre ciable portion of our official executive.

We know little of Captain Pinney save that he has been for years in Papua, in charge of one of the Govern ment departments there, that he is 49 years old —at which age a man should be at the height of his mental powers, while still completely active physically —and a man of hobbies. He assembled with his own hands and for his own use, way back in the wilds, the first private wireless set built in Papua, and he also built his own launch. He mar ried, years ago, the only daughter of Sir Hubert Murray, then and now the able Administrator of Papua, and this means that he will have the experience and knowledge of his father-in-law at his service.

We are, of course, vitally interested and vitally concerned in the coming of this man, whose powers as Adminis trator, within the limits of the island, appear to be absolutely autocratic. We have no representation in any of the Australian Parliaments, and the casting

vote on any question that comes before our little local Executive Council, be longs to his Honor, who, likewise, sits alone upon our Bench as chief and only magistrate and controls our private fortunes. There is no appeal; there is no redress.

May the gods who direct our island destinies send us a good man!

The Hospital.

Changes are also taking place in the personnel of our small hospital. Miss Gordina Nobbs, who has been matron for the past three years with an exten sion of three months on the actual ex piration of her term of office, is leaving at the end of April. She is being re placed by a matron from New Zealand, who has every possible qualification for the post. She holds four certificates — general (which embraces surgical effi ciency, midwifery, Plunket), all forms of child welfare, and a post-graduate or refresher course. She is young somewhere about 30 —and comes with the highest personal recommendation from the doctor who was empowered by our Hospital Board to select her.

It may be argued—in fact, it almost certainly will be argued —that, seeing that we are a dependent colony, so to speak, of Australia, with a small hos pital subsidy paid over by the Com monwealth Treasury, our hospital staff should be Australian by birth and training. Miss Hawkes may be, for all we know —we only know that she ac

tually arrives here via N.Z.—but, in any case, if opposition is raised to her appointment, our board will reply that months ago they communicated with Mr. Love, Chairman of the Hospitals Commission of N.S.W., and requested him to secure a fully qualified matron to take over from Matron Nobbs. He did not care to do so, and the matter was thus left completely in the hands of the local board.