Norfolk Islanders

Invite Pitcairners To Move In

The people of Pitcairn will consider an invitation to move to Norfolk Island if the French bomb tests at Mururoa make Pitcairn untenable for them. But they don’t think they will be faced with the decision to move out.

THE Norfolk Islanders issued the invitation to the Pitcairners earlier this year, and in April the Pitcairners’ reply was received by the Norfolk Island Council.

Norfolk is an Australian territory nearly 1,000 miles off the east coast of Australia. In 1856, the entire population of Pitcairn moved there because the Bounty island was get ting overcrowded.

But some of the migrants became homesick and soon went back to Pitcairn, and since then the descend ants of the Bounty mutineers have shared the two islands, about 3,500 miles apart.

Present population of Pitcairn is less than 90. Norfolk has a popula tion of about 800, less than half of whom are Bounty descendants.

Unanimous Invitation The Norfolk invitation was unanim ously extended by the Norfolk Island Council, on the motion that “since it seems likely that the islanders would have to leave Pitcairn in the near future the Council should in vite them to settle here.”

No discussion took place as to the details, and whether housing would be available for any Pitcairners who decided to move to Norfolk.

In its reply, the Pitcairn Island councillors expressed their “sincere thanks” for the invitation to settle on “beautiful Norfolk Island”.

However they said the British Gov ernment had been told that the French tests were not likely to commence before 1965, and Britain intended “at the appropriate time to consult the French authorities about safety pre cautions”.

The councillors added they con sidered in light of this information that the Pitcairn people would not have to leave Pitcairn, although they would be happy to accept the Norfolk invitation “if urgent exigency re quires”.