MODERN UTOPIA

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 88, 11 October 1932, Page 5

MODERN UTOPIA

SOUTH PACIFIC ISLAND

NO RATES OR TAXES

(From a Correspondent.) The great wheels of industry may,, cease revolving, States may rise and fall, there is yet a haven for the labour-worn Tefugee from over-civilisa-ation. It ia a little island, not as. big as Wellington Harbour. Here, where Nature has bestowed her gifts of plenty, ami trees bear all the year round, is a community of 1000 people. There is none other in the world like it, for Norfolk Island is the spoilt child of the Pacific. Fruits of every kind —guavas, loquats, pawpaws, lemons, bananas, and dozens more with the exception of the apple, which is not allowed on the island —grow naturally and freely, and there.is no time of the year when some is not available. Vegetables require little attention. The story is Telated of a banana planter who thought to rear some radishes. He planted seeds and lert them to their own devices. In just over a month the radishes had grown into a hedge three feet high the roots being as big as large parsnips. Everything grows rapidly, and because of this the .vegetables lose nothing of their taste in being of outsize proportions. Lettuces grow over IS inches across, beans two feet long, swedes almost too big to carry with comfort; and all this for the putting of seed into the earth. Beans are grown as definite crops for markets in Australia, as are bananas and passion fruit, but the' soil is so naturally prolific that cultivation consists largely in keeping down weeds that grow seven or eight feet high; and this is no mean task. MODEL COMMUNITY. One would travel far to discover a community where the spirit of friendship is fostered more, .or where people are more willing to help their neighbours. It is a community of Islanders —one must never call them natives— and Mainlanders. The Islanders are the descendants of the Bounty mutineers, and there are scores of persons who bear the names of participants in that memorable escapade. All white people are Mainlanders though they have lived on the island for thirty or forty years; for there can be few citizens who are more proud of their homeland than these Islanders. To treat ona of them well is to,, gain friends for life, and there ia no little act of assistance done for an Islander that does not pass from lip to lip right round the island. They have a language too which is all their own, composed of remnants of English, French, and Tahitian. They, can, however, speak English excellently. ;. . Norfolk Island is proud of'its pines. No one removes a tree without first planting three others. It is one of the strictest laws of this little community. Yet there is one stricter law which fe\? wonld dare to disobey: trespass. Trespass in. the eyes of Norfolk Island': justice is more serious than theft; almost as serious as homicide. Yet, taken as a whole, there are remarkably few laws on the island: they are not necessary, for here is one of the most law-abiding societies in the world. "" LAW AXB OBDEB. Government House is the centre of a social activity. An Administrator is sent down, to the island—one always says "down"—from Australia. He is practically a monarch, invested with, all powers barring that of condemning a man for murder; for this a'trial by jury is required. In other -matters he is dictator. The rest of the machinery, of the law consists in one policeman,' whose main interest lies in command of the liquor rationing stores of the- island. Liquor is a Government monopoly, and is one of the few means employed to raise money by duties. Tea is subject to a small duty, while Id a pound is charged for the importation of dried fruits. There are no other rates and taxes for the ordinary citizen. Motor-car owners—and there are some fifty or sixty of them—pay a very small road fee. Wireless does not require a licence. There are no land and income taxes to pay, but there" is a system'called Public Works. By this every landowner is required to do eight days' work per year in attending to roads and public reserves. As an alternative he may pay a sum of eight shillings to the Public Works Fund, but to do this/ is considered "infra dig." There are no wharfage dues, and education—secondary as well as primary— is free. There are stores which import anything from ploughs to underwear; pictures, golf clubs, cricket, football, and Tace meetings. There is no class prejudice, neither capitalist nor proletariat, everyono will go out of his of, her way to' help another, and everjft body is happy. If you care to work you can make money; if you don't car« to work, you need have no fear of starvation. FREE BURIAL. Death too is a satisfactory matter, All burial is free, and there is no cosf either to the family or relatives of the deceased person. Burial always takec place on the same day as death, and the service is usually attended by two or three hundred people. There are now but four of the origin* al Bounty identities remaining, and these individuals are the objects of islaitdwide reverence. The Islander himself will pay no greater Tespec't to the memory of anybody than to one of these pioneers. He is proud of his island and all that is associated with it; he is a good friend and a bad enemy; religious without being highly moral, and a hard worker when the time comes. ; Norfolk Island grows on you.. Its evergreen trees, its gorgeously coloured birds, and its never ceasing bounty are like the lotus fields where Odysseus and his company strayed. Summer and winter there is always, colour, always the song of birds, and always plenty. Birds are one of the island's greatest prides. There are thousands of them:, robin redbreasts, waxeyes, parrots, quail, great albatrosses, mutton birds, scores of others, all of the brilliant hues associated with tropical regions. In the bays herds of twenty and thirty whales come in these months to calve. Fish cruise along the beaches in thousands, kingfish, trumpeter, trevalli, snapper. No one fears the - shark; no one has ever been attacked by one of them.

Here, in the midst of plenty, there is always food for tho taking. What though the banana or the bean market be low, there is yet to-morrow.