The Press MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 1962. New Zealand And The Pacific

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29715, 8 January 1962, Page 10

The Press MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 1962. New Zealand And The Pacific

The Western Samoa inde-

pendence celebrations should stimulate New Zealand thought about the islands of the South Pacific. In the last century New Zealand was very conscious of its position as the natural regional centre for the scattered peoples of this area, though it lacked the resources to accept any great responsibility for their well-being. Many now middle-aged will recall the enthusiasm with which an older generation spoke and thought of the “Islands”. Our interests still lie in the Pacific, across which our commerce with Europe travels (while Australia’s goes in the opposite direction); but we have latterly given much more attention to the great mass of Asia to the north. Properly, we have made some contribution to progress in Asia; but have we not tended to overlook most of our neighbours to the east, who have greater claims to our help? Though they have a population of only about one million spread thinly over thousands of miles of ocean, they are important to the future of New Zealand. Polynesia is almost the last outpost of European colonialism. As experience in Western Samoa has shown, the Polynesians cannot escape infection from the , post-war ferment of nation- i alism. Their communities ; may be too small or their ; economies too vulnerable ; for efficient self-govem- < ment; but they will seek it, j even if only by changing the 1

• paternalism of colonial rule ; for the possibly less disinterested patronage of larger nations. New Zea- ’ land could not be indiffer--1 ent to the political ’ consequences, for example, i of another Cuba in the Fiji : islands. New Zealand's relation i to Polynesia is t not simply a matter of geography. Many Polynesians are New Zealanders. To other islanders the “ big smoke ” is not ! London, Paris, New York, or even Sydney, but Auckland, where their cousins live. They are ready to look to New Zealand and to migrate to New Zealand, as hundreds do every year, helping to increase the already substantial Polynesian element in the population. Once New Zealand realises that its destiny should lie with the rest of the South Pacific it will run much less risk of being regarded as a group of Asian off-shore islands. We should improve our commercial relations with the islands, which are already becoming useful markets; Tahiti, for instance, bought £1 million worth of New Zealand goods last year. We should strengthen cultural ties; on foundations already laid . New Zealand could build a great Polynesian educa- '. tional centre. We should I maintain political awareness of our opportunities, and our plain, human responsibilities in a vast area awakening to the challenge of modern civil- . isation. In short, we need I to rediscover the “ Islands '■