Norfolk Island?

WHAT IS WRONG — OR RIGHT — ON

Contributed

"DISLOYAL . . . Seething with Discontent” . . , etc.

The writer once knew N.I.—knew it, as he thinks, very well; and of recent weeks he has refused, and still refuses, to allow such headlines as the above to spoil his breakfast, even when the head lines are inspired by a “descendant of the founder of our wool industry.”

If there is one thing more than any thing else upon which the Norfolk Islan der prides himself, it is a profound loyalty to the Crown, and, as a natural corollary, to the King’s representative, the Adminis trator.

Of course, when one thinks about it, it is quite incredible that anyone in authority should be such a congenital idiot as to “deport” a person without good and suffi cient reason to cite to higher authority; more particularly so when the deportee has a name which in Australia is sure to get him all the publicity he could desire in which to ventilate injustice. But equally, it may be said, surely Mr. Mac arthur-Onslow is not a congenital idiot either, that he should make such definite statements without reason; rather, one would suppose, he would be inclined to shun publicity, for his own sake and that of his family.

The writer has neither the desire nor knowledge of the facts (nor, be it said, the cash with which to defend libel) to enter into the pros and cons of this affair.

But he can claim some knowledge of the Island, and a great affection for it.

To understand the present atmosphere on Norfolk, it is certainly necessary to view it in the light of its recent history under Commonwealth aegis. It has made a lot of noise and got its way on more than one occasion (once it obtained a Royal Commission). It may have had bad —it certainly has had some good and wise—Administrators. But, unfortunately, there has been no continuity. General Sellheim and Judge Herbert both died there, after about twelve months in office.

No one man has remained in office long enough to learn and to apply that learning to the profit of the Territory, in the form of sadly-needed legislation.

To one onlooker, at least, it appears that the present Administrator has been wise and firm; and, with the present operation of new Ordinances which pre sumably he has recommended, he is, as is to be expected after all the years of “laissez faire,” coming in for a deal of hostile criticism. The incidence of the new Customs and Companies Ordinances, mentioned (inter alia) by Mr. Onslow, is a good example of this. No visitor to Norfolk can have failed to note the skill of the boatmen between ship and landing places in any and all weather, and I yield to none in my admiration of them. But —oh! the dividends the Boat ing Company paid (if any!); and oh! the hours they kept—these care-free indepen dents. Ask the ships’ masters who love lazing in an open roadstead, waiting for cargo to be lightered!

Still, to have this sacred Boating Com pany forced to register must have hurt.

One understands. And when, at the time this law is promulgated, the same wicked Administration deports someone, I can well understand that someone’s prompt apotheosis; from the Cable Station to

Bucks Point, from Headstone to Cascade.

Again, properly to understand the pre sent situation, one must know the place and people. There are now, I see, 1230 inhabitants in the little Territory; no more than in a small country town in N.S.W.

Of these, probably more than half the adult population is by this time “Main lander.” It is a commonplace that the islands of the Pacific are a happy hunting ground for lotus-eaters who, for this or that reason, cannot make “a do” of life in a more competitive environment. Norfolk is no exception and has its share of these, who are sure to be the loudest-voiced anti- Government spokesmen in any crisis.

But Norfolk has also a large proportion of good-type settlers who, to their sorrow, bought freehold and long-term Crown Leases during the banana boom; as also a number of settlers from all parts of the Empire with small extra-Territorial in comes, such as retired officers from the Services. I cannot believe that these last

sections, any more than the majority of the Islanders, have any truck with the pre sent agitation.

But another side of life in this tiny spot has, so it always seems to me, escaped most observers—at least, in one of its more im portant aspects. Everybody, practically every resident, at any rate, is known to everyone else; in sport, at dances and card games—what you will—they mix and know each other’s foibles. The relatively few Government officials are no exception to this rule, which at first sight might appear to make for harmony. But when the fel low enforcing the law is a personal friend or acquaintance, he has a hard row to hoe.

When we grumble at some fresh bit of red tape in Sydney or Melbourne, we don’t blame the junior carrying out his orders; on Norfolk Island it is always the one man.

He knows us, for good or evil, and we him.

If he were popular, then, as I see it, he could not be doing his job.