Some News From Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island

Norfolk island has had a falling off in tourist traffic in the last two months —despite the beautiful dry weather.

However, there is generally some thing of a lull before Christmas, and bookings are certainly heavy from now on.

The weather has probably been a bit too dry for cattle, and as a result there has been a move to conserve feed for the many cows at large.

In the past it’s been the custom on Norfolk to grant pasturage rights on the roads and commons to practically all horses—their owners paying a few shillings a year.

But because of the need for feed conservation, about 30 unregistered horses were rounded up and im pounded recently, and destroyed.

The whaling station put its plant into operation to turn the carcases into tallow and meal, but the re sult was not worth the trouble of further operations.

Pasturage rights, which expire at the end of the year, are not to be renewed except under exceptional circumstances, and it is anticipated that many owners will not be able to take back all their horses on to their properties, and many more will therefore have to be destroyed.

< Mr. Ward Price, correspondent of the London Daily Mail , who is well known in the South Pacific Islands —he covered the visit of the Queen to Fiji and Tonga in 1954—left Aus tralia for England in the Dominion Monarch in December. He was far from well—making a slow recovery from a stroke suffered late in 1957.

t During 1957, the New Zealand artist, Charles McPhee, abandoned his plan to reside permanently in Tahiti, and returned to Auckland with his wife (who is Tahiti-bom).

A card from him advises that they now plan to return soon to the Islands, and hope to reside perman ently in Rarotonga.

Passengers north-bound from Auckland per "Tofua" in December included (top to bottom): Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Willoughby returning home to Suva following an air-and-sea visit to the United Kingdom.

Mr. T. Tonga, magistrate of Nukualofa, and his daughter, Miss T. T. Tonga, who has just completed a course at an Auckland teachers' training college, were farewelled by Mr. Ilolahia, now of Auckland.

Mr. R. Denny and Mr. K. Pulotu returned home to Nukualofa after five years training in carpentry in New Zealand.

Photos; J. P. Shortall.