MUTINEER’S DESCENDANT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 858, 30 December 1929, Page 1

MUTINEER’S DESCENDANT

JOHN CHRISTIAN REACHES NEW ZEALAND MEMBER OF FLOCK HOUSE PARTY A descendant of an historic South Seas figure—Fletcher Christian, leader of the Bounty mutineers—arrived in Auckland last evening on the Rangitata. He is Mr. John Christian, a young member of the Flock House party who has come to carve for himself a career on the land. Claiming Newport Mon, near Cardiff, as his birthplace, Mr. Christian is the only Welshman among the large party of boys who are travelling to Flock House tomorrow. He admitted this morning that he felt a little homesick. “It’s funny to see the sun shining and feel the hot weather at Christmas,” he said. “I hope to make friends, but the Christians have never made friends easily. However, there is a boy from the next street to ours in Newport now at Flock House. I shall see him tomorrow, I hope.”

Young Christian’s father was (lie first officer of the Laurentic and lost his life when the White Star liner was sunk while carrying bullion to America in 1916.

When the Rangitata arrived at Pitcairn, where the descendants of the Bounty mutineers are living, the boy was hailed with enthusiasm, and the leader of the Flock House party, Mr. W. H. Osborne, of the staff of the London “Daily Mail,” was approached and asked if the young Welshman could alter his plans and make his home in Pitcairn.

Mr. Osborne is not empowered to make a decision of that nature but undertook to place the facts of the case before the New Zealand Government, together with a recommendation that Mr. Christian, if he so desires, should be allowed to join his newfound friends on the island.