RAROTONGA AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 248, 26 October 1897, Page 5

RAROTONGA AFFAIRS.

A petition has been sent by a number of merchants and residents of Rarotonga (Cook Islands) to the Governor of New Zealand in connection with the petition signed by the arikis of chiefs of Rarotonga asking for the recall of Mr F. J. Moss, British resident. The white people's petition approves of Mr Moss Federal Court Bill, and goes on to say : "We respectfully protest against its being allowed to be thought that anyone holding the high office of British Resident is to be dependent upoh the good will and pleasure of a few native chiefs entirely ignorant of the true work of Government in any way. We dissent altogether from the petition sent to Your Excellency by the Arikis. We desire to express our full confidence in Mr Moss, and our earnest hope that he will continue as Resident in these Islands. We feel assured that the great majority of the natives would themselves join in this hope, but the tenure of their land places them so entirely at the mercy of the Chiefs that independent thought or action is with them impossible." Referring to the present dissatisfaction in some quarters in Rarotonga, Mr Moss in a letter says : " It is, of course, a disappointment to me to find my work thus apparently upset, but two things are certain —one is that a certain amount of system has been put into their government and will not be abandoned in any change to come. The other is that the thirst for learning English will not be assuaged without provision for its teaching. With three missions competing, and with-the law that no school can be established which does not provide for teaching English, I have no fear that this will be lost sight of, unless the trouble ends in withdrawal of the Protectorate. In that case the Cook Islands will soon be French. Will England think them worth annexation? Without harbours, and not on any important main line, I fear not, now that the natives have shown that they can give trouble. We must wait and see. My action in taking the temporary responsibility (by the Proclamation which you will see) of federal expenditure on myself makes things sale till the Parliament meets again next July."