Unflattering Official
p. 38 · Read in the full issue
Report On Pitcairn Is.
THE residents of Pitcairn Island are plainly neglecting the education of their own children, and are paying more than they can affdrd for work in the mission field, says Mr. J. C. Neill (British Colonial Service) in his annual report.
Everything on the island is subject to a tithe for religious purposes, says the report, and the yield from this, plus freewill offerings, is sent overseas for the use of Seventh Day Adventists.
The report adds that the island’s medi cal history is remarkable, with an aver age of one death a year for the last 80 years. Despite inter-marriage, there are no signs whatsoever of physical or men tal degeneracy, although they are degen erating culturally.
Families are undisciplined. Children are lapsing into the Pitcairn dialect, a queer mixture of Tahitian and English, neglecting English.
It is proposed for the first time to im pose laws, including a fine of £5 for adultery, or living in sin, and a fine of £2 for bathing in drinking water.
Mrs. E. Sprott, of the Melanesian Mis sion, passed through Sydney in October on her way back to the mission station on Santa Ysabel, Solomon Islands, after spending furlough in England.