Revised Jun 22 2021
The Governor of New South Wales and Norfolk Island, in a letter to the Islanders from Sydney, Feb. 16, 1856, had expressed a hope of becoming personally acquainted with them; and said, he trusted that they would continue to maintain that happy simplicity, and true Christian character, which had gained for them regard and esteem all over the world.
His Excellency accordingly paid his intended visit to Norfolk Island, and saw the community in the enjoyment of the advantages of their new home. Having sailed from Sydney on the 17th Sept. 1857, he had reached Norfolk Island on the 23d, and found a large proportion of the population, with the Rev. G. H. Nobbs at their head, ready to receive and welcome the distinguished visitor. Horses had been brought; but the Governor preferred walking, across the Island, accompanied by Mr. Nobbs, and the Chief Magistrate, Mr. Young, to the settlement, a distance of about three miles. On the following day he called the inhabitants together in the school-room, and read his commission, which, together with the instructions forwarded to him by the Secretary of State for his guidance, he caused to be copied into the book containing the laws of the Colony. He also applied for certain written returns as to names, families, population, available land, and other statistics.
The people being much in want of flour and biscuit, he determined to proceed to Auckland, New Zealand, to get the requisite food, as well as to arrange for a trade in such things as wool, tallow, and hides, which the Islanders had for sale. He embarked for Auckland on Saturday, the 26th September, and returned to Norfolk Island on the 8th of October. In the mean time, the returns had been prepared, and the Governor had finished his revision of the Laws and Regulations. A meeting of the adult portion of the community was held on the 14th, when he explained to them the objects of Her Majesty's Government in placing them where they were, and gave them valuable instruction and advice, in order that they might, with God's blessing, maintain their increasing numbers by their own exertions, and keep up, as far as possible, the peculiar form of polity under which they had existed so happily on another spot The necessity of regular and energetic labour was impressed upon them; and, to facilitate this, the Governor proposed to send as settlers on the Island, some fit and competent persons. Mr. Thomas Rossiter, who was deemed eligible as a Schoolmaster and Storekeeper, and who had been a successful Master of a Church of England Industrial School in Hertfordshire, was at the head of the party. He was accompanied by his wife, his two children, and his sister. James Darve, miller, wheelwright, and smith, with his wife and two children, and H. J. Blinman, single man, mason and plasterer, made up the number of ten. These persons having been appointed by Her Majesty's Emigration Commissioners, sailed from Plymouth in the Palmyra, Feb. 13, 1859. The passage-money to Sydney was, in each case, defrayed from the fund raised by the Pitcairn Fund Committee. The whole balance of the amount invested has since been placed by the Committee in the hands of the Governor, for the benefit of the Islanders.
Mr. Fortescue Moresby, R.N. of the Iris, accompanied Sir William Denison on his visit to Norfolk Island. In a letter dated H.M.S. Iris, Sydney, Nov. 27, 1857, Mr. Moresby said: "I landed at Norfolk Island on the 25th of September, with three other officers: and never, indeed, did any man receive a warmer welcome than I did; much to the wonder of the officers who were with me. I was carried back to those times when I landed at Pitcairn in company with my dear father; and I heartily wished him with us, to see the kindly faces around me. As Mrs. Selwyn was on the Island, I walked up to pay her my respects, and then returned to Mr. Nobbs's house, to take some photographic pictures of the Islanders; for I had all my apparatus on shore. I turned Mr. Nobbs's study into an impromptu dark room, and then took some pictures. Of course, in taking groups with children, some of them moved."