Islanders Commit Few Crimes

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30943, 27 December 1965, Page 8

Islanders Commit Few Crimes

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Dec. 26.

The Minister of Island Territories (Mr Hanan) said there was no justification for fears that large numbers of criminals were coming to New Zealand from nearby islands.

Mr Hanan said the recent case of a Tokelau Islander sentenced in Auckland for rape appeared to have prompted fears that the small but steadily increasing number of islanders coming to New Zealand constituted a threat to law and order. But statistics showed that islanders who were New Zealand citizens were probably the most law-abiding section of the community. Mr Hanan said the Department of Justice had reported recently that

Six Cook Islanders, all males, were in gaol for crimes committed in New Zealand;

Three Cook Islanders were in Borstal—two women and one man; Two Niue Islanders were in

prison for offences committed in New Zealand, one of which was for maintenance default.

Only one Tokelau Islander was in gaol—the case dealt with recently.

That made a total of nine people in prison and three in Borstal who were New Zealand citizens from the Cook Islands, Niue and the Tokelau group, said Mr Hanan. About 9000 islanders were in New Zealand The crimes committed represented .01 per cent of their number and those in Borstal .0033 per cent. Of those in prison four were serving sentences longer than six months.

“The fact that people of the Cook Islands. Niue and the Tokelau group are New Zealand citizens and that they cannot therefore be deported from this country on conviction for criminal offences has sometimes given rise to concern," said Mr Hanan. “However, the same statistics show that these people deserve the respect of all other New Zealanders, and there is no justification whatever for fears that large numbers of criminals are either living in New Zealand or coming here from these islands.”