A NEW LAND

Hokitika Guardian, 21 July 1936, Page 6

A NEW LAND

TINY ISLAND IN, S. PACIFIC SYDNEY,. July ill The first new territory to be added to the British Empire under King i Edward ATM. —a tiny island in the j Southern Pacific—has been formally j] annexed by four Sydney men. > It lies in the four-mile-wide expanse j of Elizabeth Reef, 5000 miles northeast of Sydney, and had never before been charted. The island -'Which has formed above the coral reef-, is now ten feet above the water level. The discoverers were Messrs Norman K. Wallis, Henry Newton-Scott, John W. Forsyth, and Gilbert AYliitley). . :• Collecting specimens for the Australian museum, and recharting tfio areas under commission, they were cruising in Air YN r al!is’ 20-tou schooner. Wanderer, to the Middleton, and j Elizabeth Reefs, 90 to 120 miles north of Lord Howe Island. j When Elizabeth Reef was visited \ last, after a wreck in 1909, it was omy a coral reef which was completely submerged at high tide. As such it is described on the Admiralty ChartThe island which has formed since and which is growing rapidly, more than GO yards in diameter. I The island has been named Forsyth- ] land, after Forsyth, who in a speech when it was annexed, forecast its use as a seaplane base on the Sydney-]? ijiAmerican route. In the opinion of Air Whitley and the other discoverers, it appears to bo the centre of one of the best game fishing grounds in the western Pacific. The romantic finding and possession are described in the ship’s log by Forsyth. “I hoisted the colours and announced that possession of the reef and alt Within it had been taken on behalf of his Atajesty King Edward VIII. Three cheers were given for the King and portion of the blue coral was bro Ken off and taken as symbol of possession. “[ expresed, in a short speech, the hope that the ne\y possession might prove a useful, though minor, addition to the Empire.” “It was a great day,” said Air Wallis, the skipper and builder of the Wanderer, describing the ceremony yesterday. I Suppose that we were the first to add*new. territory, humble as it may be, to th*> Empire of Edward A- III” The island is far from all steamer routes and according to Lord Howe Island residents, the reef has never attracted fishermen.