A HAPPY LAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 159, 9 July 1869, Page 2

A HAPPY LAND.

o (From the Australasian.,) Some short time since the Government of Sydney received a memorial purporting to come from the inhabitants of Lord Howe's Island, praying for an investigation concerning an alleged murder in that place. Mr. Robertson had, no doubt, some difficulty in ascertaining the precise position ofhis unknown subjects, but perseverance works wonders, and so the discovery was made, and au officer sent to make the proper inquiries. This gentleman and his companions have brought back a curious description of this almost microscopic variety of political life. The island is about 450 miles distant from Sydney, aud is six and a half miles in length, aud half a mile in breadth. About one-third of this space is taken up by two mountains, descending sheer into the sea, one of which rises to a height of 2500 feet. On this island, the world forgetting, and by the world forgot, live thirty-five human beings. About eight or ten of them are able-bolied young men. They are English, or of Australian birth, and settled in their ocean home, it is said, with the viiw of trading with the whalers who used the island as a place of call. They have no government, no judge, no church or school, and no legal marriage. Three or four times in the year a small craft belonging to some of them, brings them, in exchange fcr their onions and bananas, a supply of flour and sugar, and Such other articles as they need. They appear to be well fed, well clothed, and well housed, aud there seems to be a " tacit understanding " amongst them to respect each others' property. They live together happily enough, and disputes among them are very rare. They know nothing and they care nothing about the events of the outside world. They have no wish to leave their island, and they are disinclined even to speak about other countries. In their lonely land, with its semi-tropical productions, they remind us of the country whence " the mild-eyed, melancholy lotos-eaters came;" and in their apathy towards their old and far-off homes, we seem to hear the refrain of the lotos-eater s choral song — "Oh rest ye, brother mariners; we will return no more !''----