NEW ZEALAND'S CINDERELLA

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 106, 7 May 1929, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S CINDERELLA

Within six hundred miles of Auckland lies a group of islands under the Government of New Zealand. They possess one of the finest climates in the world, quite equal to that of Norfolk Island (called "the Madeira of the Pacific") and they are situated in nearly the same latitude. Travellers who have visited them have been struck by the fertility of the soil and the exuberance of the vegetation. In these islands line oranges can be seen growing wild, while bananas of a iine marketable quality can be grown in a climate which permits of white labour all the year round. These islands are also admirably suited for the growth of early vegetables and all kinds of subtropical fruit for the New Zealand market. Yet this group (known as the Kermadec Islands) is at present totally uninhabited. Nor does the New Zealand Government appear anxious that they should be colonised. A person interested ill the settlement of the group, who wrote recently to the Department of Lands in Wellington, was informed that "it is not the intention of the Government to place any settlers on the Kermadce Islands at the present time, nor to deal with the same in any way." From time to time one hears reports that the islands are "no good," or quite uucolonisable, but, so far as the writer knows, no satisfactory reason for the statement has been adduced. We are told that the islands are subject to volcanic action, thcit in some places the ground is quite hot under foot, that there are sulphurous emanations and other thermal activity. But the thermal region of New Zealand (Rotorua and Taupo) is one of its greatest natural assets; here also there are places where it is unsafe to tread owing to underground fires, also sulphurous emanations as in the Kermadccs, while volcanoes such as Tongariro, in occasional eruption, have not greatly impeded its popularity, permanent available water, we are told, only exists on Sunday Island, but there is an abundant rainfall, and water can be stored in tanks or cisterns, as it is in the coral islands of the Pacific, few of which have any satisfactory natural water supply. The lonesomeness and want of communication arc drawbacks which can easily be overcome,, and as to the want of harbours many other islands of the Pacific (as Samoa) are quite as badly off in this respect,, and yet keep in regular communication with the outside world. Besides, we are rapidly approaching the era of aerial communication which would place the Kermadecs within six hours of Auckland, the nearest New Zealand port and natural outlet and commercial entrepot for the islands. It would be interesting to have a really definite and clear reason why the New Zealand Government persistently refuses to colonise or develop the Kermadecs. One thing is certain; if New Zealand does not want the group there are nations who may not be so indifferent. The American Government has already, quite recently, laid claim to several of the island dependencies of the British colony of the Falklands, on the ground that they are uninhabited, although they, like the Kermadecs, have been temporarily occupied as bases for whaling expeditions or other purposes. If New Zealand wishes to maintain an effective claim on the group (which under altered conditions, may have a very different value in a -few years hence) there is still time to colonise these islands. The mere fact that the Government maintains a depot for castaways on the islands is no proof of possession; in fact, a rival claimant might regard this as a public acknowledgment that the Kermadecs are a "No Man's Land." The Bell family, who lived in the Kermadecs for some thirty years, off and on, do not seem to have found these drawbacks insuperable. The writer is informed that the reason for abandoning their holding was because they found the New Zealand Government unable or unwilling to grant them a title to the land which they had improved. —J.D.L.