A Spurious XJtopia. 263 
the laws made for them by the former Governors 
of New South Wales and substitute laws of 
their own, and that their continual maladminis¬ 
tration even of their own so-called laws had at 
last brought trouble upon them. He did not 
want, he said, to say hard things ; “ but,” he 
continued, “ you have been sadly misrepresented 
by people who have visited you for a short 
time—due no doubt to your hospitality to 
them.” And then he told them something 
more unpleasant still. “. . . The rottenness 
of their condition was very evident . . . the 
island is in a most deplorable condition . . . 
crime is rampant and unchecked . . . the morals 
of the younger people are as low as they can 
possibly be.” The island, he pointed out, 
was supposed by the world generally to be a 
home of smiling plenty, and that the moral 
and social condition of its people had no 
parallel, whereas the very reverse was the case. 
Their lazy habits had been a curse to the island, 
and the condition of the land, as compared with 
what it was when the place was turned over to 
them in 1856, was deplorable indeed ; it was 
simply becoming the home of the poison bush 
and the wild tobacco plant. They imagined— 
