A ROBINSON CRUSOE COLONY.

Colonist, Volume XII, Issue 1244, 27 August 1869, Page 4

A ROBINSON CRUSOE COLONY.

(From the Australasian.)

Some short time since the Government of Sydney received a memorial purporting to have 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 of his unknown subjects, but perseverance works wonders, and so the discovery was made, and an officer sent to make the proper inquiries. This gentleman and his companions have brought back a curious description of the almost micsroscopic variety of political life. The island is about 450 miles distant from Sydney, and is six and a half miles in length aud half a mile in breadth. 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 ft. On this island j —the world-forgetting, by the world forgot ! —live thirty-five human beings. About eight or ten of them are able-bodied young men. They are English, or of Australian birth, and settled in their ocean home, it is said, with the view of trading with .the whalers who used the island as a place of call. They have no Government, no judge, no church, no school, and no legal marriage. Three or four times in the year a small t'i-aft belonging to some of them bring them, in exchange for 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, and there seems to be a tactic understanding among them to respect each other's property. They live together happily enough, and disputes . ruong them are rare. They know nothing bout the evils of the outside world. They have no wish to leave their island, and :hey are disinclined even to speak about other countries. In their lonely land, with : us semi-tropical productions, they remind us of the country whence the mild-eyed, lelancholy lotos-eaters come; and in their apathy towards their old and far-off homes, ■i-e seem to hear the refrain of the lotoseaters' choral song— "Oh rest je, brother mariners ; We ■will return uo more !