Norfolk Islanders Not Mutinous -

Just Short Of Straight Answers

From a Norfolk Island correspondent

Norfolk Island, after having drafted a petition to Queen Elizabeth asking for her help in establishing the island’s constitutional position, in September got on with the job of collecting signatures for it. This was going very well when one of the island’s not infrequent schisms developed.

The launching of the petition had been given wide publicity in the over seas Press, with headlines suggesting that the islanders were in mutiny, and wanted their freedom from Australia at all costs. The publicity brought a reaction from three of the most famous Bounty names on Norfolk.

Adams, Quintal and Christian, who sent a letter to leading Australian md New Zealand newspapers protest ing that the islanders were loyal and luggesting that the petition to the )ueen did not have islander support >ecause it was the result of the work )f “mainlander malcontents”—main ander being the phrase used to de cribe expatriates on Norfolk.

The battle was being fought well ato September.

The petition was mainly the work f Tom Lloyd, owner of the small weekly newspaper, The Norfolk slander, who is an islander himself.

Ir. Lloyd supports the retention of lorfolk Island as a tax free haven ecause he believes there are many enefits for the islanders. In this he nds himself on the same side as lany mainlanders who have more to ain than the islanders in keeping the land tax free.

But the island’s tax haven days are obably over, because Australia has at pressure on company activities (Mowing introduction into Norfolk land of a new company ordinance 3 IM, Sept., p. 10). The petition to e Queen which Tom Lloyd helped aft takes a hit at these recent de ;lopments, complaining that Aus alia has “brought down complicated ws which appear to deal with Aus alian conditions rather than with the dfare of our community”.

But oddly enough, the petition to e Queen is not mainlander-inspired.

It is the manifestation of an age d uneasiness among the islanders ;out their constitutional position, id or did not Queen Victoria give □rfolk Island to the Pitcairn corn unity as a “distinct and separate

settlement” in perpetuity? If so, how is it that Norfolk now finds itself under the complete control of Aus tralia? If Norfolk is not legally a distinct and separate settlement, at what point did it cease to be?

Tom Lloyd and some of his friends have recently seen a legal opinion which throws doubt on Norfolk’s present position as an Australian territory. The opinion has come from the top level, and a small group of islanders wants to clean up the situa tion. The petition to the Queen is really the first move in what will probably become a court challenge.

The challenge is not aimed at seeking freedom, but merely at resolv ing once and for all an unanswered question. The islanders would prob ably be horrified if they found, after all, that they could become independ ent and it is not likely they would want to accept the honour. But they say they “have to know”.

It’s unfortunate for Tom Lloyd that the petition and its attendant publicity happen to coincide with the aims of the mainlander group that wants to see the island’s position as a tax haven protected, because the suspicion now is that the whole chal lenge is mainlander-inspired, for a selfish purpose. And anything with a mainlander taint doesn’t get very far on Norfolk Island, where they are still mutineers at heart.

Here is the petition that was cir culating on the island in September:

At Norfolk Island A Petition

TO

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth Ii

Buckingham Palace, London, England.

May It Please Your Majesty;

In 1856 Your great-great-grandmother Her Majesty the late Queen Victoria reserved Nor folk Island as a new home for her loyal sub jects of Pitcairn Island.

Our original Pitcairn community were moved here, and Norfolk Island was proclaimed a distinct and separate settlement in the Crown's Dominions. Since then both the men and women of Norfolk Island have willingly fought for the Crown in every war in which our Sovereign has called on us to serve.

In 1914 Your grandfather the late King George V gave to the Commonwealth of Aus tralia responsibility for the peace, order and good government of Norfolk Island.

Like a Colony we do not have representative government or right to vote how we shall be governed. We do not seek representation in Australia s government or ask any right to vote how that country shall be governed.

In governing us Australia has given to Nor

folk Island certain benefits. We are deeply grateful for its benevolence. Yet our com munity does not want charity to support itself.

Now Australia has begun making changes on Norfolk Island which are not to secure our peace order and good government and which in some cases may harm us greatly. It has brought down complicated laws which appear to deal with Australian conditions rather than with the welfare of our community. It has announced a new scheme of taxation laws in our Island to solve problems that are Aus tralia's and not ours. It is considering making Norfolk Island a maximum security animal quarantine station for Australia, so that if there were unexpected dangerous diseases they would be prevented from infecting Australia by being confined to our few square miles of land—and has plainly said that this decision will be made by Australia and that our own Island will not be the deciding factor. It has dealt weakly with the protection of our fishing waters, which are essential to us, even though we recognise that they may have little importance among the larger matters which Australia must nego tiate with other nations.

In such actions Australia appears to believe that it has the right to govern Norfolk Island and the land we have inherited as if we were a Colony owned by Australia. We do not believe that it has ever lawfully been given such a right. The resolving of this difference of belief between Australia and ourselves appears to depend on the true meaning of proclamations by past Sovereigns of Norfolk Island and we respectfully believe that only Your Majesty can impartially rule— WHETHER His Majesty the late King George V gave Australia only the power to take actions for our peace, order and good government; or whether he gave Australia power to govern Norfolk Island in any way it wishes.

WHETHER Norfolk Island remains, as Her Majesty the late Queen Victoria declared it to be a distinct and separate settlement; or whether Norfolk Island has become part of Australia.

WHETHER we may continue to give our first loyalty to Your Majesty and to look to You for our ultimate protection; or whether by accept ing Her Majesty the late Queen Victoria's offer of Norfolk Island, our original community was unknowingly sacrificing its rights and privileges as a dependency of the Crown as Pitcairn Island still is.

Our way of life and the future of our com munity depend on how these questions are answered. If we remain silent and Australia continues to exercise its assumed power over us, we fear that our birthright will soon have been lost forever.

We, whose signatures are attached, therefore respectfully beseech Your Majesty, with as great urgency as may be thought fit, to direct us and those who govern us how these ques tions shall be answered.

We have the pleasure to be Your Majesty's loyal and loving subjects.

This is the letter which, following

the circulation of the petition to the

Queen, was sent to leading Aus

tralian and New Zealand newspapers

by three Norfolk Island men:

We, the undersigned direct descen

dants of the Bounty men who

mutinied under Captain Bligh in

(Continued on p. 121)

'789, would like to make it known 0 the public that, despite the pro phesies in the mainland papers that mutiny” is imminent on Norfolk stand, the Norfolk Islanders are, Imost without exception, entirely atisfied with conditions on the island.

Visiting journalists eager for copy ave mistaken the grumbles and roans from the Australian company pemtors on the island, who have een hit by the Federal Treasurer’s ecision to close Norfolk as a tax aven, for genuine and outraged rotests from the Norfolk Islanders lemselves.

Norfolk Islanders served in the outh African war, in two world wars nd in the war in Korea. In the last \ree wars many Norfolk Islanders icrificed their lives. Their loyalty 1 the Crown and to the Common ealth of Australia is unquestionable, hey are certainly not planning a gal challenge to the Australian overnment’s authority over the 'and as an Australian Territory, as is been stated more than once in e mainland press. Any such allenge will come from the few nainlander” malcontents on Norfolk ho are stirring up trouble to suit eir own ends.

The petition to the Queen which gan circulating on the island in rly September will attract very few ’natures from Norfolk Islanders, le nature of the petition is summed in the following extract concerning ? Australian Government’s right to ’islate for Norfolk Island: “We do t believe that it has ever lawfully ?n given such a right.”

Norfolk Islanders are proud of ’ir descent from the Bounty men

and of their heritage on Norfolk Island. And they are also proud of their status as Australian citizens.

G. A. Adams.

G. R. Quintal.

B. E. Christian.

Norfolk Island.

September 5, 1972.

Distribution of this letter caused the organisers of the petition to reflect on whether the petition should be re-worded, especially as in the meantime somebody painted a swastika on The Norfolk Islander’s printery.

It was decided that the petition to the Queen should remain as it was and by late September Tom Lloyd had collected more than 350 signa tures (the island’s electoral roll con tains 951 names). A big number of the signatories are of Bounty names.

And Lloyd announced in his Norfolk Islander that he intended to leave the swastika where it was, as a reminder to the population of the kind of tactics that existed in less enlightened countries but weren’t needed on Norfolk Island. • After 32 years in the Solomon Islands Mr Don Scott and his family are returning to Australia to live.

Mr Scott, an Australian, came first to the Solomons in 1924 when his father was appointed Bums Philp manager at Makambo. Following war service in Papua New Guinea and Borneo, Don Scott returned to Gizo in the Western Solomons before finally settling down at Munda.

In 1964 he bought the 40 acre island of Kolo Hite in the Wana Wana Lagoon, an island originally belonging to the Wickham family.

Mr Scott has recently negotiated the sale of his island to Mr J. Milldrum of Hawaii for an undisclosed price.