SUNSHINE AND SHADOW IN NORFOLK ISLAND.

White Ribbon, Volume 35, Issue 418, 18 May 1930, Page 2

SUNSHINE AND SHADOW IN NORFOLK ISLAND.

M\ In si impression ot Norfolk Island Wius out 1 ol intense sadness. This, I thought, was due lo th< "dark rock pin- li k«* stat"l\ ••plumes,'* which stood sentiio-1 1 1 k♦* wherever OM looked. Th« \ long dark shadows, and gate I f♦*« 1llg of awe and gravity. which was only BTSrOSSBS hy a bsttST baoalsdg* of the Island, and its inhabitants \s on*' unw accustomed to the bush and became familiar with its bird and insert lilt, the MSISS ot aw« and sadness BBMaaSSI ed. and ty placed with a Wsllag ot MeadttaaM and brightness. The ferns, which groi in profusion at the feet of tin statel> pin«'s; the lantana. with its brightly eoioaiod flowers, beckoniug crowds of gaily dressed butterflies, and rone* alinj the haunts of the Oalifornian giail and other equally-friendly hirds; the less stately maple with its straight trunk and spreading leaves; the white-wood trees, tall and whit*'. standing like giant sign-posts, pointing to a tranquility and i>eace, "far from the maddening crowd;" the wild lemon tree with its thirstquenching fruit always nady; and. at night, the tiny phOSphsrssosat fungas which sheds the light of its pale green torch, like a fairy lamp. on the dark farpSt of '.he bush; the brightly-coloured parrots with their noisy cry, flittering from branch to branch; BBS brown do\ arefully camouflaged that he could walk in front of your feet and you could hardly see him, so like thi soil and grass is h< ; Um friendly guava bird, which wo lid come and ss4 bSBBie your chair; the tiny fantail. so friendly ti at numbers of them would come and eat the bread and cake off the table as you sat to eat out-of doors; the grey whistler, which n< \- i left one to imagine they UN alone or friendless, so persistently did he sing in season and out of season, for. at midnight, when the moor, taoSM he could be heard trilling: away; the insects which, day and night without cessation, gave their voice to add motion and life to the atmosph. the white :erns. which laid their • in the hollows on the white-wood ■MS, and Um sea-birds on the cliffs; and the ever-present sea breeze, with its softness and Daintiness, sooth the tired and frayed • >f Jaded

nature, swaying the tall pirns ..> it to 'oend then into friendlim'ss, shaking and lutterimi among the sllkss ISaYm of UM banana palm, as if tti ■'• B7STB an aimy with banners, all these and the sunshine. Who could describe the sunshine of Norfolk'.' Sunshine, which must melt BTSI7 shadow. M warm and friendly is it. so bright tad so rlrtd does it Make all nature, from tne chocolatsotoarsd soil to the tip of the Miles! pine, from tie ot the linilticoloured cliff to t!ie sparkling foam at its bi The shadows Met by tlu- tall pirns in the bright sunshine flrsrS but s.unbolic of the shadow cast on this Paradise of the Pacific by the BMMOry of the mini sadness of the ciunict dajS, the stone buildings, feaees and parapets, and the ruins of the old huiidi: i red to remind .me of those terrible Hiram T shadows aif gone, thaak Qod, but not so, the shadow i-.i>t i>> the liquor trallic. To iim\ a WSSTi r of the Whit*- How. was said, "Vo, r's is the hist waits bow i bars sseg on the Island, am! I only saw MM Other, it was pinninu t''; lace at a little child's throat. Her mother, I learn Sd SitsnrardS, bad been a member in Victoria. Norfolk Island is BBdSff the Australian Commonwealth (lovernnient, and State Control is in tores there. Liquor is issimd with the PSTmit of the Doctor, who is a Qororfl inent employee. I venture to sa>. that though there is no bar tad no glasses, the amount of liquor con suuied on Norfolk Island per head of the population, is no less than that of New Zealand under lice: I was there during the Ninas festivities, and I felt saddened to think that in the name of Christ (for our Ninas festival is to commemorate Him » that as much as 4-f>ths of what thi "Whits Ribbon" women of New Zealand have gathered for Head quarters Fund, was spent in three days in liquor. As far as I could learn, only the ■ nth Day Adventist Church is I in any Hglßßßllt Temperance work, and when I said I would like to form a branch of the W.C.T.C. there, I was told they had never heard of it before. With the coming of the mainlander and his insistence on having the things of fashion and BOSh, the shadows, which have in consilience

for geaerattoai fallen across his home, threaten to blur the sunshine of the simple-hearted islander, whose bsrlf this s»a-girt lata Though ths conditions of litnot so itrsauoUf or SO insist *-iit I one >!"• - not n» Sd to live to a timetahis) sad tIM natural impulses ot (ilin. M and hospitalit J are not stullitied and crusht-d h\ 00BTSB tionality. and though MM basks in the sunshine, and do* s not look for tIM ihadOl tS MS, the shadow seat bj ths Ugaor trasV was a rerj real thlag I am hopeful tliat the sunshine will he brought hy the "White EUbboa" army to dispel this. ths only real shadow the people in this land ot sunshine bars tS f< M. \l WILSON