SUNDAY ISLAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 15, 17 July 1937, Page 8

SUNDAY ISLAND

SETTLERS TO LEAVE

AN URGENT REQUEST

"HARE-BRAINED SCHEME"

The hope that there would be no further attempt on the part of "misguided persons" to settle on Sunday Island was expressed by the Acting Minister of External Affairs (the Hon. F. Langstonc) last night when commenting on the decision of four of the seven settlers now on the island to abandon it. In response to their requests they are to be taken off by the Maui Pomare, which sailed from Wellington on an exploratory mission some days ago. \ Yesterday the Government received a radio message from Mr. J. E. Anderson, officer in charge of the Maui Pomare's expedition, and in response to an urgent request has agreed to remove the 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.

"For some time past," Mr. Langstone said,'"there has 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, 1936), A. and L. Flewellyn (arrived December, 1936), and T. Grant and A. McGee (arrived April, 1936). Mr. Venables's association is not to be confused with the company known as Kermadecs, Ltd., which is at present endeavouring to establish settlement on the island.

"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. TARTY BEING LANDED. "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 today. Immediately on arrival the officer in charge of the party received complaints, and a request that the settlers be shipped away by the Maui Pomare.

"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 havf to be sent forward to rescue the expedition. In response to this urgent request the Government has 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."