Notes From Norfolk
p. 76 · Read in the full issue
Island
(From Our Own Correspondent)
Norfolk Is., June 17.
Although it will be another two years before we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the settlers from Pitcairn, the Administrator has convened a meet ing to plan the celebrations, and com mittees have been formed. A big contingent of V.l.P’s., old residents and tourists is expected in 1956. * * * Casual labour is hard to get these days.
Work on Government House and houses on Quality Row is absorbing the skilled tradesmen, and another gang is busy on fencing-in Queen Elizabeth Avenue in readiness for more tree planting.
It is likely that most residents will pay their public work tax this year instead of doing their work at scrub cutting or on roads. The levy is 10 days’ work or £1 per day in lieu. Last year’s innovation requiring residents over 55 to pay the tax unless they have been living here for 10 years, brought in a welcome £ 250. * * * The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Mowll, made a short visit to the Island on his way home from New Zealand. He con firmed a number of parishioners and drew the biggest attendance in years when he preached at St. Barnabas’ Chapel. The Archbishop was interested in the Island’s traditional hymns. The men’s choir, led
by Mr. Carty Christian, sang them at a social in Rawson Hall. * * * Work is proceeding on Kingston Jetty, steel girders being driven as piles to hold the concrete work. An old convict-built building has been restored for use as a Customs and cargo shed. It is now almost the same as it was when the Pitcairners first saw it nearly 100 years ago. * * * Old-timer. Mr. Fred Tattle, returned after a long holiday in New Zealand, but had to go back there in a special plane after an operation.
Mr. W. G. Johnson, chairman of W. R. Carpenter and Co. (Fiji) Ltd., ordered a number of passenger and commercial vehicles while he was in Adelaide early in June, He said some of the vehicles would be used as taxis for the tourist trade in Fiji.
For the first time since before the war, snow capped the peak of Mount Wilhelm in Central New Guinea on June 8. It is the only mountain in P-NG where snow has ever been recorded.