I must add another question to those I raised in my commentary last week about “cultural icons:” Why are valuable livestock turned into traffic hazards? I also want to clarify two of the issues I mentioned, concerning the Archives and Records Management Act 2010 (which I inadvertently mis-cited as the Records Management and Archives Act) and Norman Island being Robert Louis Stevenson’s inspiration for Treasure Island.
The sheep
Tuesday morning, a large flock of sheep was approaching a sharp bend in the road outside our house, and I witnessed one of them being knocked down by a car. While watching over it until an Agriculture Department truck arrived, I helped prevent at least two head-on collisions between vehicles avoiding the animal and others speeding around the corner towards them. Why are animals encouraged to roam our streets without any identification (e.g. coloured markings or identity collars)?
2010 law
Regarding my letter of last week, I should declare a personal interest in the Archives and Records Management Act 2010, as I spent many hours as chief librarian in 1986-1988 with the parliamentary draftsman, whom I knew as Mahindra (his Sri Lankan family name appears on the title pages of the Revised Laws of the Virgin Islands, 1991), in finalising the draft of an omnibus act to govern our national archives, libraries and museums. At the time, the draft’s planned introduction into the Legislative Council (forerunner of the House of Assembly) was announced in the Speech from the Throne, but never scheduled, leaving the bill to a slow, lingering death. Since then, the territory has lost hundreds (perhaps thousands) of irreplaceable archival documents, both through natural causes (e.g. insect and climatic damage) and human error (carelessness and uninformed disposal).
Thus, I read with high expectation the Gazetting of the new act on Sept. 2, 2010 (after it had received the royal assent), but the law will not come into force until “a date the minister may, by proclamation published in the Gazette, appoint” and that date has not yet been announced. So much effort has been invested in this act, not least the precious time of the legislators, that it would be a pity to delay much longer the creation of the Archives and Records Management Department. If necessary, an amending act to remedy any technical deficiencies could be passed before its commencement.
Norman Island
Regarding the popular conception that Norman Island provided Robert Louis Stevenson’s inspiration for Treasure Island, most of his biographers ignore or discount this claim, but John Amrhein Jr. (reputedly the leading authority on the 1750 Spanish fleet) makes a forceful circumstantial case for it. Owen Lloyd and his one-legged brother, John, were said to have buried on Norman Island on Nov. 13, 1750 treasure stolen from a Spanish galleon at Ocracoke, North Carolina, and Mr. Amrhein claims that this episode was the inspiration for Mr. Stevenson’s story about pirates returning to “Treasure Island” to recover the treasure they had buried there. His presentation on “Treasure Island: The Untold Story” can be viewed on YouTube.
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