Pitcairners
p. 41 · Read in the full issue
Call For
Big Changes
The Society of Descendents of Pitcairn Settlers which has a membership of 115, met on Norfolk Island on January 8.
Ken Nobbs reports that a well attended meeting passed the following resolution; ‘Whereas the Norfolk Islands Bill 1978 has been introduced in the Australian Parliament, with the consent of the Aus tralian Government, proposing a new form of constitution for the governing of Norfolk Island, and whereas the said bill will deprive the people of Norfolk Island of entitlements and rights which are justly theirs, the Society of Descend ents of Pitcairn Settlers, whose homeland Norfolk Island is, hereby resolve that it opposes the Norfolk Island Bill 1978 in
its present form, and asks the Australian Parliament to amend the bill so as to incor
porate the following changes
which the society considers to be essential; T. That Norfolk Island should be recognised and for mally reconfirmed as the homeland of the Pitcairn race, which it has been since 1856, and that Australia should ac knowledge that it has no right to deprive persons of Pitcairn descent of full freedom to live in their homeland and that any restriction on this freedom should be made only by the representative body elected solely by the electors of the island. ‘2. That Norfolk Island’s existing status as a separate and distinct settlement in the British, Commonwealth, which was established by the British Government in 1856, should be formally recognised and recon
firmed and that Norfolk Island should not be dealt with as if it were an Australian pos session and that the sea and seabed surrounding Norfolk Island should be recognised as belonging to Norfolk Island, to the same distance and in the same manner as is generally thought right for inhabited islands elsewhere in the world. ‘3. That the people of Norfolk Island should be for mally acknowledged to possess the right to give consent or withhold consent on any con stitution for the island and on any change thereto. ‘4. That Norfolk Island should be formally acknowl edged to have the sole right to levy taxes and other imposts on the island, and the sole right to determine how such monies raised on the island shall be spent through a representative body elected solely by the elec tors of the island.’