Pitcairn's Island  Notes  Source  Whalesite

Colonial Office Minutes regarding
Lieutenant-Commander Hunt’s proposal
to appoint a Governor [of Pitcairn Island],
January 1846.

14 Jan^y. Lord Lyttelton

      I cannot but think that this matter of Pitcairn’s Isl^d has been practically dealt with too much with reference to the Romantic and the Picturesque. Here are 119 persons living on a small Island in the midst of the Pacific, of no more use to the Nation at large, than if they were settled in the Interior of Africa. Yet we are constantly making them Presents, sending Ships to visit them, permitting Naval Officers to make a sort of code for their Government, & to appoint rulers over them; and, now, one of those Officers recommends that a Gov^r. sh^d be appointed and a Missionary sent out to take care of this little hamlet which has, already, become too populous for the subsistence of its Inhabitants. My own opinion is that the kindest & wisest thing w^d be to convey them all, as opportunity may offer, to New South Wales, the nearest British Colony or to New Zealand, where they might be very useful. The original story of the settlement & of Adams, the Patriarch of it, was so curious & was so impressively related in the Quarterly Review that the Settlement has been nursed as a kind of pet or favourite — an amusement in which a Nation can hardly indulge itself for any length of time without doing much [unmixed] harm.

      I do not know the original history & should be glad to be referred to it. This proposal is a proposal to found a new Colony. We cannot undertake it; but we ought not to return a simple negative & I should be glad to learn whether [there] any advantages [derived] [from] the occupation of this isle to set-off ag^t the obvious objections – before making the offer Mr Stephen suggests.

15 Jan^y Lord Lyttelton

      The story will be found in the 45th Vol. of the Quarterly Review pages 70-82. I know of no advantages promised by the occupation of the place, if there be any it must be as a Naval Station on which head information c^d. be obtained from the Admiralty.

I think we must inform the Adm^ty that I do not anticipate good from the permanent continuance of this small community upon the island, and I am not disposed to advise H.M. to appoint a Gov^r. for it.

      I lean to Mr Stephen’s opinion, preferring however N.Z. to N.S.W. – in N.Z. they would I conceive have much greater – for maintaining their associations & traditions as in some [degree] a separate community which they might & at the same time totally within reach of civil protection & of the ordinances of religion.

      There are however objections to expatriation of every kind. And on the whole I think it but first to make known the [substance] of this communt to the Society for Propⁿ. of the Gospel, the Church Miss. Society or both – & inquire whether they are disposed to do anything. If they reply in the negative, then I think we sh^d. – of the burden of a free passage to NZ & of a promise to make some arrangements there for their reception.

      Let Mr Stephen see this & unless he [demures] write to the Admiralty and (in the first instance) to the S.P.G.

      Pagination of the original autograph has been maintained.

      William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898), in 1846 was Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. [Wikipedia]

      Lieutenant Commander Henry Samuel Hunt Commanded HMS Basilisk in 1844. He was born in 1809.

      Lord (George William) Lyttelton (1817 – 1876) was an Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. [Wikipedia]

      James Stephen (1789 – 1859) was the British Undersecretary of State for the Colonies from 1836 to 1847. [Wikipedia]

Document no. 68. January 14 &19, 1846. "Colonial Office Minutes regarding Lieutenant-Commander Hunt’s proposal to appoint a Governor". Pages 1308 to 1311.

Pitcairn's Island  Notes  Source  Whalesite