Note 5 — Chapter XII

The possession of Norfolk Island was a much-mooted question. When Bishop Selwyn was in charge of New Zealand as his diocese, it was his wish to remove the headquarters of the Melanesian Mission to Norfolk Island, but neither the Pitcairn Island committee at home, nor the governor of New South Wales, Sir W. Denison, deemed it best that it should be so. Some few years later, when Bishop Patteson was head of the mission, the matter was again brought up. While some of the people were in favor of the movement, others strongly opposed it, but the matter was finally settled by the bishop’s purchasing several thousand acres of land, being granted permission to do so by Sir John Young, governor of New South Wales, he having been so authorized by the home government. Thus was the desire of Bishop Selwyn’s heart fulfilled in the removal of the Melanesian Mission from New Zealand to Norfolk Island.

When His Excellency Lord Augustus Loftus made an official visit to Norfolk Island in 1884, he sought to remove the impression “tenaciously held” by the people that the island was entirely theirs, and spoke very plainly to them respecting the use and abuse of the island, dwelling strongly on the fact that so many trees should be suffered to be cut down without planting others in their stead.