Vili PROCEEDINGS, MAY. 
Government: House, etc., were thrown on the screen,and served to elucidate 
the observations on the topography of the island. Many of these scenes 
were from photographs by the Rev. C. Bice, of the Melanesian Mission, 
who also pointed out various spots of interest. 
THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AT NORFOLK ISLAND. 
Mr. J. B. WALKER, F.R.G.S., read a paper under this title, dealing very 
interestingly with the story of the solitary islet set in the summer sea, so 
curiously interwoven with the history of our own colony, which was for a 
quarter of a century a dependency of Tasmania—and thus the penal settle- 
ment—until in times within the memory of many present it was abandoned, 
chiefly through the philanthropic exertions of Bishop Willson. A fact not 
so generally known, however, he mentioned was that immediately after the 
planting of our colony, only a year or two after Governor Collins founded 
Hobart, the Norfolk Island settlers were deported in a body to Tasmania, 
at which time half the population of this colony, and nearly all its free 
settlers were Norfolk Islanders. He sketched the discovery of the island 
by Cook, October 10, 1774, the administration of Philip Gidley King, the 
first commandant, and the early struggles of the settlement, leaviig its 
gradual decline, and the final deportation of its settlers to Tasmania, to be 
dealt with at a future time. 
Mr. C. T. BELSTEAD, a resident of Norfolk Is'and for many years, and 
whose information related chiefly to the period intermediate between that 
dealt with by the two papers, questioned the erection of Government 
House as a sort of fortress, and could not see why any difficulty should be 
experienced in getting geological specimens from Phillip Island, seeing that 
he had been there on a camping expedition. He regarded Bishop 
Montgomery’s paper as interesting and valuable. 
Mr. F. BetsTeaD strongly deprecated the exaggeration of novelists in 
their description of past events on Norfolk Island, and said that having 
lived there during a portion of the period covered by Marcus Clarke’s “ For 
the Term of His Natural Life,” he could testify that many of the writer’s 
statements were largely overdrawn. 
Sir Lampert Dopson proposed a vote of thanks to those who had con- 
tributed to the evening’s discussion by papers and information. Regarding 
the charge of exaggeration, he thought there were horrors to be raked up 
in the history of the British Navy that would surpass in inhumanity those 
recorded at Norfolk Island, but it were better that the curtain of oblivion 
should be drawn over such matters. 
The vote of thanks was unanimously accorded, after which Mr. E. P. 
Jones gave a phonographic entertainment with Edison’s latest machine, 
which was very instructive and highly appreciated. 
Mr. A. Mault’s paper on ‘“‘ The Disposal of the Sewage of Hobart” was 
postponed till the next meeting. 
