Norfolk Island Notes

From Our Own Correspondent June 15.

FOR the last few weeks, the main topic of conversation on the Island has been that of food.

It is three months since a New Zealand ship called —and the visible supply of flour disappeared three weeks ago.

Since then the residents ihave been either without bread, have drawn on their private, meagre stocks of flour to make their own bread—sometimes without great success—or, as some have done, ground up some of their fowls’ wheat and utilised the resultant wholemeal flour.

Shelves in the shops are pretty bare but the tobacco situation is not acute yet —and the arrival of the Morinda within a week or so (weather permitting) should allay many of our worries.

The customary Bounty Bay celebra tions on June 8 were very much curtailed this year owing to heavy rain.

The ceremony at Kingston Jetty in which uniformed descendants of the Pit cairners parade, plus the cricket match and the community open-air lunch, were all washed out and the substitute cele brations at the new Rawson Hall were poorly attended.

The news that Canberra had authorised £27,000 for the erection of terminal build ings on the air strip is very welcome but construction will not be rushed as the local Works and Housing superintendent has not yet received the plans.

It. is understood that a much-needed waiting room for passengers will be pro vided together with accommodation for ambulance and fire engine.

Another of the fine old Georgian houses on Quality Row was gutted by fire re cently. The house was occupied by the local doctor, Dr. Downing, and it is under stood that an overturned lamp was responsible.

Within a few minutes of the outbreak, the place was gutted—to the amazement of the few helpers on hand who did not know that a stone house could generate such a blaze.