N.Z. ROLE IN ISLANDS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30445, 20 May 1964, Page 16

N.Z. ROLE IN ISLANDS

“Honouring Its Obligations’’

Some newspapers had expressed concern that New Zealand had not “done its stuff by the Cook Islands." said the Governor-General (Sir Bernard Fergusson) when he spoke to the Christchurch Rotary Club yesterday.

On his tour of the islands, wherever he went he had seen things of which New Zealand could be proud, and nowhere the reverse, his Excellency said. New Zealand was spending a lot of money in the islands and honouring its obligations. “Everywhere we went I was asked to say thank you to New Zealand, and this is the first opportunity I have had of passing on that thank you,” said Sir Bernard Fergusson.

Western Samoa, which had been granted independence, had struck him as “going like a bomb.” The economy seemed to be level and the balance of trade was good.

“It seems to be a real tribute to New Zealand’s stewardship in the past,” his Excellency continued. Tokelau was facing an awkward time, and the people there wanted to be left as they were being administered by New Zealand through the High Commissioner in Apia. Sir Bernard . Fergusson praised the work being done by a large number of New Zealanders working in isolated places—the men on the weather station in the Kermadecs and the resident agents on remote islands. Speaking of his visit to the Royal New Zealand Air Force flying-boat base at Lauthala Bay, the Governor-General said serious thought would have to be given to what would happen when the flying-boats went out of service in a few years. “The islands depend very much on them, not in the least for mercy flights,” he said.