THE EARL OF BELMOREasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether there was any objection to laying before the House, copies or extracts from reports on the state of Norfolk Island which might have been made to the Secretary of State for the Colonies by the present or the late Governor of New South Wales. His object, he said, was to obtain information as to the reasons why it was proposed to do away with the self-government of Norfolk Island and annex it to 824 the other colonies in the South Seas, either New South Wales or New Zealand. The reason he took an interest in this matter was that for more than four years, when he was Governor of New South Wales, he was also Governor ex-officio of the dependency of Norfolk Island, and at that time—now a good while ago—he knew more about the island than perhaps anybody else. He recalled the early history of the island, and mentioned that when the sending of convicts to New South Wales was put an end to Norfolk Island was placed under the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania. The convict establishments at that place had been kept up to 1856, when they were finally broken up and the convicts removed both from Norfolk Island and from Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, as it was now called. At that time Sir W. Denison, the Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania, was on the eve of being appointed Governor General of Australia and Governor of New South Wales. Sir W. Denison took a great interest in philanthropic objects, and among others the condition of the Pitcairn Islanders, the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty. Pitcairn Island was considered to be over populated, and a movement was made in this country to remove the islanders to Norfolk Island; and this movement was in due course carried out. He wished particularly to draw attention to the fact that when this community was moved from Pitcairn to Norfolk Island it was on the clear understanding that it was to be a self-governing community, and that it was to be, if he might use the expression, run on temperance lines. In 1870 he paid an official visit to the island, and found that the people were as well behaved as any orderly English village, with the exception that there was practically no drunkenness in it. With regard to the change now contemplated, there might be good reasons for it, but he did not know what those reasons were, and accordingly he asked for information on the subject?
THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Lord BALFOCR),replying to the question in the absence of Lord Selborne, who was detained at the Colonial Office by an important conference, said: The Secretary of State has no objection 825 to present to Parliament the Reports referred to by the noble Lord, but I would suggest to the noble Lord that it may be better to defer doing so at present, as the Governor of New Zealand has intimated by telegraph that his Ministers wish to submit certain propositions to Her Majesty's Government respecting the island, and his Dispatch has not yet arrived. The Reports, if laid on the Table now, would therefore be necessarily incomplete; but when the Dispatch has been received there will be no objection on the part of the Secretary of State to give the Papers suggested.