PITCAIRN ISLANDERS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 47, 19 November 1936, Page 11

PITCAIRN ISLANDERS

Minor Emigration Trend to New Zealand By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, November 18. A minor emigration trend appears to have set in from Pitcairn Island, home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers. Four Pitcairn Islanders reached New Zealand two months ago and five men and a woman arrived by the liner Rangitata. The vessel stopped at the island to pick them up. ' The visitors are John Christian, a fifth generation descendant of Fletcher Christian, leader of the mutineers: Mr. and Mrs. Percy Young, Raymond Young, Edwin Young and Samuel Young. Tlie Young family is descended from a midshipman in tlie Bounty who threw in bis lot with Fletcher Christian. The new-comers smilingly denied that hardship on the island was the cause of their emigration. There was always plenty of food there, but they wanted a change. They hoped to obtain work in the Dominion, and the length of their stay depended on their success in finding employment. Conditions were quite good on the island, Christian said. The community was virtually self-supporting, so :liat the depression had scarcely been felt. Flour, rice, peas, oil, kerosene nnd clothes were the principal imports, but the quantities were small. Exports were practically confined to oranges, of vhicb up to 600 cases were sometimes sent lo New Zealand by liners which made brief stops, while another source of income was the sale of souvenirs to nassengers.