248 BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAKD, 
of them as should desire to go thither. The 
benevolent plan thus decided upon was notified 
to the Pitcairn Fund Committee by letters from 
Herman Merivale, Esq., Under Secretary for the 
Colonies, dated December 14, 1853, and April 6, 
1854. Under this arrangement, instructions 
were given to the Lieutenant-Grovernor of 
Norfolk Island, not to allow the lands on the 
island to be occupied by any other class of 
settlers. 
The measures for the transfer were for some 
time postponed, in consequence of certain requi- 
site delays in the clearance of Norfolk Island of 
all its convict population. During the period 
of consideration and inquiry, in the summer of 
the year 1854, it was suggested by the excellent 
and energetic Bishop of New Zealand, who was 
then in England, that a college, which he was 
desirous of establishing, as the centre of the 
Melanesian " (or Black-Islander) Mission, might 
be settled on Norfolk Island ; the buildings on 
the island being, according to the account of the 
Bishop, of a capacity equal to that of all the 
Colleges in the University of Cambridge. 
The Pitcairn Fund Committee, then sitting in 
London, expressed their opinion, that such an 
employment of the buildings as Bishop Selwyn 
had proposed, would in no way interfere with the 
well-being of the Pitcairn Islanders, if proper 
precautions were taken that the community of 
Pitcairn should be kept distinct, both as to pro- 
perty and self-government ; and that the whole 
Island should be protected from the intrusion 
of other settlers. 
