STRANGE TALE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21580, 26 August 1933, Page 9 (Supplement)

STRANGE TALE

LORD HOWE ISLAND NARRATIVE UNEARTHED " NATIVES " OF LONG AGO Who were the mysterious inhabitants of Xord Howe Island before its occupation in 1834 by three white men. Ashdown, Bishop, and Chapman, and five Maoris landed by the whaler Caroline, of Hobart Town, asks a writer in the Sydney Daily Telegraph. It has usually boen assumed that this reraoto little island was uninhabited when discovered, and that until the settlement of 183-4 it remained unoccupied excopt for such casual visits as that of the runaway Stewart and his companions from the Derwcnt, who spent some time there in 1824. Doubt, however, has been thrown on this theory by the report to Mr. Tom Iredale, of the Australian Museum in Sydney, of the finding on tho island of a skull of an amazingly primitive type and apparently of considerable antiquity. The existence of this was vouched for by reputable inhabitants of the island, but tho skull seems to have been lost. Ourious Little Book

Yet in a curious little work published in London in 1789 there is what purports to be a description of the primitive inhabitants of Lord Howe _lsland. This work is entitled:— "An Authentic and Interesting Narrative of the late Expedition to Botany Bay, with particular descriptions of Jackson's Bay and Lord Howe Island, written by au officer who has just returned in the Prince of Wales, who visited that spot with Captain Cook and Dr. Solander in their celebrated voyage round the world." N This writer speaks of the expedition to Lord Howo Island as likely 'to bo attended with very considerable advantage to the new colony. He describes the island as abounding with fine turtle and fish, with birds, such as pigeons and a "sort of Guiney fowl, very iarge and heavy and beautifully variegated with different colours." The cabbage palm tree, wild celery, samphire, wild sorrel, endive and succory grass -were to be found everywhere. Then comes tho surprising part:—• "The natives resemble those of New Holland; their largest houses, if thev deserve that name, are just largo enough to sit upright in, and their only furniture is an oblong vessel, made of the rind of the cabbage tree, bound together at the ends by a small twig, tho long ends of which, not being cut olf, serve as a handle." Description of "Natives"

Those "natives" are described also as having small bags, like cabbace nets, made of string which they hune round their necks, containing a lump of gum or resin, a few fishhooks of bone, lines made of bark, and a shell or two which served for cutting up anything. A few points used to arm their darts, and an odd ornament or two are said to conclude the inventory of the richest man among tliem. Who was the officer who claimed to have visited Botany Bay in 1770, asks tho Sydney writer. And what is the basis of his extraordinary statements about Lord Howe Island? There are. of course, other Lord Howe Islands. But, from his narrative, it seems certain that, he refers to the one east of New South Wales. Did someone who had been on the Supply when she sighted Lord Howe, in February, and visited it in March. 1788, indulce in a little lec-pullinE at the expense of the old "Botany Bay" hand?