riminal Statistics and Movement of the Bond Population of Norfolk Island is a statistical work by Captain Maconochie. Excerpt: “Norfolk Island was first occupied as a dependency on New South Wales in 1787, and was not then meant as a station for the doubly convicted, or in any way as a place of increased punishment; but merely as affording means of distributing the prisoners sent to New South Wales, and increasing the resources for their employment and maintenance. Accordingly, free settlers were allowed to come with them; and gradually the population of these amounted, as far as I can learn, to about 120 souls, and of the prisoners to about 250. A much greater number of the latter, it is said even to the extent of 700, were at one time sent down to make a pier, and some other works deemed requisite; but they were removed in 1797, shortly after the severe earthquakes of that year, which are said to have materially altered the views of Government in relation to the island.”
