Visitor A

When Is A

Migrant?

From a Norfolk Island correspondent The Administrator of Norfolk Island recently stressed the need

for a positive developmental

policy on the island, which, he

said, was “at the cross-roads”.

He commented that many steps taken by the Norfolk Council in the last two years had been un certain in matters requiring posi tive action.

Immigration and conservation are two vital matters on Norfolk Island that have been getting this kind of uncertain treatment.

There are so many different qualifications, procedures and con ditions in connection with immigra tion that the average person seeking to live on Norfolk could be forgiven for wondering whether he could ever hope to make it. And having made it, be sure that he could retain the right to live on this “gem of the Pacific”.

The visitor who stays for more than 30 days must fill up a form and apply for temporary residence.

This will allow him to remain on the island for six months. If he then seeks to acquire resident status, he completes another form, which re quires him to give two character references, an account of his qualifications if he intends to pursue any form of occupation, and certificates guaranteeing his mental and physical health. In most cases he is expected to reveal his financial capital and annual income. Then he faces a five-year wait!

Like Jacob waiting for the hand of Rachel, he too may be dis appointed, for almost everything re lating to his recognition as a Norfolk Island resident remains at the discretion of the Administrator.

Finally, if his name has been pub lished in the Gazette, there is a further 30-day wait during which members of the public and the council can raise objections to his forthcoming status as a new Norfolk Islander. Even then, he must always remember that “the owning or occupying of land on Norfolk Island does not in itself confer on persons any right of residence on the island”.

The immigration policy has several times been raised at council meetings and a special meeting recently dis

cussed it. Members have been asked to advise on what changes are needed.

Clarification certainly is needed.

Nobody wants large scale immigra tion, but certainly the Immigration (Temporary Provisions) Ordinances of 1967 and 1968 are unpopular.

They should be more democratic and give prospective residents information on their privileges and responsibilities.

On the matter of conservation, some councillors are still unwilling to declare themselves wholeheartedly on the side of preservation of the flora and fauna of Norfolk’s unique landscape. There is no dearth of conservation reports by experts, and the area suitable for a national park has been defined after careful examination, but there is still nothing concrete on conservation.

As the Administrator says, many steps taken on Norfolk Island are uncertain where positive action is required.

Meanwhile, that now-famous tourist brochure about Norfolk, with the sub-title, “The most boring place in the whole wide world”, continues to be the centre of local controversy.

The brochure was produced by a Sydney public relations firm, Etcetera, and financed from funds selected from business houses on Norfolk. At a council meeting in September some councillors suggested that the brochure be called in and destroyed.

Letters to The Norfolk Islander both decry and praise the brochure.

Some think it clever, others that it is a grave slight on Norfolk and its inhabitants.

A director of one travel agency praised it for its originality. He said it would intrigue outsiders, and that it probably didn’t matter if the islanders themselves liked it.

But an islander remarked upon

“the evil smell of bare-faced lies”, and objected to what he considered were the inferences cast upon islanders, “as if they were set apart from the usual kind of the human race”.

And so it goes on.

THERE was a brighter story on September 13. The day dawned fair for “Aunt Jemima”, 100-year old that day. At Government House a public reception was ready, with music playing, a banner above the door and a three-tiered cake decorated with 100 candles and ribbons on a table.

Aunt Jemima arrived by special car and sat carefully in a leather chair to watch the proceedings. She is a little old lady, whose face is lined but still shows something of its former beauty. She sat there smiling, but looking rather bewildered, until we all sang the Doxology, and then she too joined in the singing, remembering former days.

The community presented her with an inscribed silver salver and the Administrator said that “Aunt Jemima” had seen the early begin nings of the Pitcairners’ settlement on Norfolk Island, was a grand daughter of George Hunn Nobbs and witnessed the rise and fall of the whaling industry.

A new avenue of Norfolk pines, to replace the old ones cut down during World War 11, may now be planted and known as “Aunt Jemima’s Avenue”.

Aunt Jemima herself has seen many changes in the course of her long life. Norfolk, once old-fashioned with horse-drawn buggies, has now become a thriving community with many settlers whose names are not those of the old families.