THE CHATHAM ISLANDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2218, 16 June 1908, Page 2

THE CHATHAM ISLANDS.

RESIDENCE ON THE ISLANDS.

NATIVE LANDS,

(Press Association.)

OH'HdSTOHUBCH, June 15. Inspector Gillies, who has been to the Chatham Islands on departmental business, has returned to Lyttelton by the s.s. Hippie. There' is a member Of the police force stationed at the islands, Constable Matthews, who went there about six 'months ago. His headquarters are at Great Waitangi, where he fills- a multiplicity of Government offices, being Clerk of the 'Court, -Begistrar of Births, Deaths ;and Marriages, and Postmaster. 'There is no regular police station at the place, but there is a Government building, which comprises in itself Post Office, Courthouse, and goal, tlio last-named being a concrete addition at the back of the building. The inspector found tlio little community a very orderly one. Indeed, he is apparently of -the opinion that continuous residence in the Chathams :would 'be just a, trifle monotonous.

Mr. 1. iE. Taylor, who went for a visit to the Chatham .Islands by the s.s. Hippie on Juno 1, also returned by the steamer. With regard to the state of affairs at the Islands Mr. layloi had lit tit; to- say, *Xh<?rc appears to bo a probability of diminution in tlie white population there. It appears that the leases of most of the land belonging to the Maoris will expire in about three years’ time, and it is anticipated that the Maori owners will then require rentals which "hi have the effect of preventingEuropeans from taking the land up The result will probably be that the population of the Chatham 'Islands in the near future "-ill consist principally of 'Maoris and- half-castes The residents of the Chatham Islands are much perturbed by tlio tremendous increase of black swans, which wore introduced there about 10 years -i«-o and which now appear in countless numbers. It seems that they ithreateu the existence of the mild ducks. Although such a nuisance they are protected by proclamation, and the islanders naturally wish to have the protection removed. Accordingly they prevailed upon Mr. T. E. Taylor to bring over in petition to the Govei-uiiKUit, signed by 51 person*, pleading'for liberty to shoot the ?" r - Taylor, on arrival at Lyttelton, handed the petition to Mr G. Laurenson, M.P., who undertook to forward it to the Colonial Secretary.

Mr. Taylor was emphatic in his praise of the Hippie as a boat. 'Ho stated that during .a- stiff northerly gale oil Friday night,‘ when a tre-mendous-sea was running, she. rode the waters “like a duck.”