NORFOLK ISLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6362, 8 April 1882, Page 6

NORFOLK ISLAND.

[i-'KO.M OCK UWS COI;KI«)'O.VL>i:.VT.]

March 23. We have had no scarcity of shipping lately. The K.M.S. Gunga, from Fiji to Sydney, called in about a fortnight ago. TheHobart whaler Aladdin is lying oil' and on getting supplies. The cutter Ijeveron returned to Noumea last evening with pigs, fowls, and sundries ; the schooner Caledonia, from the last-named port, sails for Auckland to-day. The Auckland whaler Espeeulador was here on the (Jth instant, and reports having taken 70 barrels ol sperm oil since leaving port. Jiiul -weather drove her from the south and bad luck from the French lioulc, so she has gone to cruise on the middle ground. Tlie local news is not of very great importance, the principal item since my last being two cricket mulches between fifteen Melaiiesians and a team of Norfolk Islanders, which caused considerable excitement. The first match was played on the mission ground on the Ist of March (Messrs. l'almer, Kay.-, and Ruddock playing with the Mehuieaiaiis), when the NorlolUera suM'ered a most disasterous defeat, being beaten in one i/mings and thirty-four runs. However, the hospitality of the missionaries afterwards somewhat atoned for the bad luck experienced. At the return match, two weeks later, on the local ground, this result was almost exactly reversed, the I'lLcairn decendants being the conquerors with one innings and ten runs to spare. The round-arm bowling of one of the mission boys was most especially admired, so also was Forty I Juliet's undcr-arui, both doing great execution.

The Lent season is unusually quiet, a Wednesday evening service bein:; the only addition to the ti.--.ial routine of the Chinch. .Business also must lie very slack with tile secessionists, as cue seldom hears anything of tlieir goings-on now. Tiiu occupants of the Molane.-siau -Mission are well. Tlie stall, though, is wretchedly short, and although no hitch lias occurred in the working, still the Southern Cross, expected in the beginning of next mouth, will doubtless be very welcome.

The quarantine house that our potentates went mad about is not yet quite finished. Its dimensions are not very grand—-_'O X I'J- and whether a place of this size can be utilised for the purposes intended remains to lie proved. The weather has been all that could be desired for planting purposes, and farming operations have been going on bri.skly when not interrupted by " public work," which fur four weeks has been going on alimust continuously. The late rains have given the grass a good spring, and the stock are looking better than for Home considerable time past. The onion pest, lliruji.i, is still with us, and our seed is again a failure, so that onion-growers will have to look abroad for this article.

Our Horticultural Society give their autuinnexhibitionoi! April 13 CinEastcr week), and it is stated that the Longridgc Leidertafel are making prodigious exertions to give birth to a concert about that time too.

I have a real bona fidii ghost to report. ■Vs a party of young men were driving cattle, at Bullock's Hut, the other end of the island, last Saturday, one, who was in advance of the others, came across something in a patch ol acacia that lie reports to be the ikeness of a man who has been dead many years. However, he only hail a cursory glance, as he very prudently slait his eyes and galloped on. The other boys that Were following corroborate this statement, and say their doys also growled. So the report, I mean the ghost, must be authentic. Jlow a "host eoii'.d l>o miserable enough to hide all tla-se years in such an uncongenial spot, in a problem that some of your talented spiritualists may bo able to work out. The autumn equinox was not accompanied witli the violent weather which usually marks the; period at this time of year. The health of the island is good.