Administration Of Cooks Praised

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30914, 22 November 1965, Page 14

Administration Of Cooks Praised

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, November 20. New Zealand’s administration of the Cook Islands and the decision of the islanders to enter an association with New Zealand were praised in the United Nation’s General Assembly’s Trusteeship Committee yesterday.

The committee was discussing a report by Mr Omar Adeel. the United Nations representative who supervised elections in the Cook Islands in April. Mr Odeel reported that the conduct of the elections had been satisfactory. Mr Dudley McCarthy, of Australia, congratulated New Zealand on its “notable achievement.” It had been motivated by a sense of responsibility in its dealings with the islands. They were not strategically important to New Zealand and offered it no wealth. In fact, the islands cost New Zealand much in money and effort and posed difficult problems of ad-

ministration, Mr McCarthy said.

Mr Usuf Bhabba, of Pakistan, said he was satisfied with the islands’ decision to maintain a voluntary association with New Zealand. Mr Lloyd Barnett, of Jamaica, believed that similar arrangements could be adopted elsewhere. The United Nations, however, had to make sure that such arrangements were not distorted to the prejudice of the people involved, he said. The Cook Islands question could be of considerable significance in the history of the United Nations on colonial problems, said Mr T. O’Sullivan, of Ireland.