SUNDAY ISLAND

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 249, 17 July 1937, Page 12

SUNDAY ISLAND

Dissatisfied Settlers To Be Evacuated

FOOD SHORTAGE FEAR

Survey Party Arrives

Four of the seven settlers on Sun-

day Island, in the Kermadec Group, * are to be evacuated at their own request by the Government’s motor-ship Maui Pomare, now at the island. The ship left Wellington a few days ago taking a small expedition to carry out exploratory work. A radio message from Mr. J. E. Anderson, the officer in charge of the expedition, was received yesterday by the New Zealand Government, and iu response to an urgent request the Government has agreed to remove four disillusioned men. Reference was made by. Mr. Anderson to the possibility of an acute shortage of food on the island, necessitating the dispatch of a relief ship to rescue the expedition in the event of the settlers remaining. Reference to the recent attempts to promote settlement on Sunday Island (Kermadec Group) were made by the Acting-Minister of External Affairs, Hon. F. Langstone, in an interview with “The Dominion” last evening. “For some time past,” he said, “there hag been a movement to promote settlement on Sunday Island by a group under the leadership of a Mr. Venables, known as the Sunday Island Association. There are at present on. the island Messrs. Bruce Robertson and A. - Bacon (arrived May, 1935), J. Sneddon (arrived September, 193 G), A. and L. Flewellyn (arrived December, 1936), and T. Grant and A. McGee (arrived April, 1936). Mr. Venables’ association is not to be confused with the company known as Kermadecs, Ltd., which is at present endeavouring to establishment settlement on the island. Visit by Naval Party.

“It will be of public interest to know that on June 14 H.M.S. Achilles called at Sunday Island and with considerable difficulty landed a party for naval purposes. The officer in charge had hardly set foot on the island when serious complaints on the part of some of the 'settlers were the order of the day, and an urgent request was made by the disgruntled settlers .to be shipped back to Auckland. This request could not be granted, as the Achilles was bound for the Tongan Islands and other ports of call. “By the Maui Pomare, which left Wellington a few days ago, the Government found it necessary to send a small party to the island to carry out certain exploratory work, and this party is being landed from the Maui Pomare to-day. Immediately on arrival the officer in charge of the party received complaints, and a request that Ihe settlers be shipped away by the Maui Pomare. Demand on Provisions.

“Mr. Anderson, the engineer-in-charge of the expedition, stated in his radio message that if the settlers were not removed from the island there might be such a demand on the party’s small supply of provisions that a relief ship would have to be sent forward to rescue the expedition. In response to this urgent request the Government lias agreed to remove/ four of the settlers from their sorry and unenviable plight. “I consider that this development should be known by the public, and I trust that there will be no further attempts by misguided persons to settle on this island,” concluded Mr. Langstone. “Those who participate in such hare-brained schemes are not really deserving of pity, but rather of public censure, because they deliberately get themselves into trouble and then request public assistance to extract them.”