News Release

PENDING NEW ZEALAND LEGISLATION COULD LEAD TO SOME RE-POPULATION OF PITCAIRN

ANGWIN, CALIFORNIA, April 20, 2009 ----- A bill now pending before the legislative body of New Zealand, if passed by Parliament, could lead to something of a re-population of population-short Pitcairn Island.

The measure makes it easier for New Zealanders who are drawing "NZ Super" retirement benefits to spend all or part of their retirement years in another country or to travel for lengthy periods of time without being penalized as the present law demands.

A number of Pitcairn Islanders now live in New Zealand, and a number of them would like to return to the island, but do not do so, at least in part, because of the present penalty.

Pitcairn is one of more than 20 Pacific island countries covered by the proposed retirement legislation. A study by New Zealand's Ministry of Social Development found that those drawing NZ Super benefits overseas were, mainly, people who had decided to return to the land of their birth in later years.

If the bill passes, it would become law on November 2, 2010.

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Pitcairn Islands Study Center, 1 Angwin Ave., Angwin, CA, USA. Herbert Ford, 707-965-6625, 707-965-2047, Fax: 707-965-6504, Email: hford@puc.edu, Website: http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn