Independent Cook Islands would still need N.Z.

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33588, 17 July 1974, Page 11

Independent Cook Islands would still need N.Z.

fßy a staff reporter)

If the Premier of the Cook Islands (Sir zXlbert Henry) carries out his intention of seeking full independence from New Zealand he will be breaking a political tie which goes back to 1901.

Richard John Seddon annexed the Cook Islands and proclaimed them to be part of NewZealand as part of an expansionist programme in which New Zealand, itself a remote fragment of a much larger empire, set out to cut something of a dash by establishing a mini-empire of its own in Polynesia.

Successive generations of! New Zealand taxpayers who, have been called on increas-l ingly to subsidise unviable' economies in the Pacific! Islands might have asked if this pretension to an imperial destiny was really necessary. The Cook Islands appear to have done well out of the arrangement. They achieved! full internal self-government I in 1965, while leaving New! Zealand responsible for) defence, externa) affairs—; and balancing the precarious! Cook Islands budget. Since then, Cook Islanders.! as British subjects and New) Zealand citizens, have ; enjoyed free access to New) Zealand. They have not been! slow to take advantage of! the opportunity. Up to 1965 about 100 Cook, Islanders entered New Zea-J land each year. Now nearly) 1000 do so. The Cook Islands! retain a population of about > 22,000, but 10.000 or more of j their people also live in New] Zealand and the remittances; they send home form anj important source of income.! The courtesy is not recip-| rocated; even though the: islands remain nominally part' of New’ Zealand, any New| Zealanders who wanted to settle there permanently! would find it most difficult; to do so.

Direct grants

New Zealand provides i direct financial grants to keep: the Cook Islands solvent.: These are reviewed every! three years and for the I period 1971-74 New Zealand: gave $7.45 million. Other less! direct forms of aid include] educational and vocational ’ training, assistance in airport,! hotel and harbour construe-! tion, and, more recently,] assistance in providing an! adequate shipping service, ; The Cook Islands remain dependent on a handful of exports, almost all of which] ate sold in New Zealand.' Citrus fruits and juices,]

copra, pineapples and bananas, along with textiles from a newly established factory make up most of the $3 million worth of exports. The < islands import about $6 million worth of goods, almost all of them from New Zealand. 1 New Zealand has been 1 accused of treating the 1 I islands as a source of cheap 1 ! fruit and cheap labour. The I

)Cook Islands Government ' I has attempted to prevent ‘labour recruiting there fori Auckland factories. Some of the criticism is! Justified, but it is difficult to| see how 15 small islands—; total area 93 square miles— 1 I spread over 850,000 square: miles of tropical ocean could! hope to achieve more than! a subsistence existence. Successive New Zealand Governments have always emphasised that the choice to remain associated with !New Zealand was freely made by the Cook Islanders; the Government w-ould be! iunlikely to oppose a move, I for full independence. Not all own way Sir Albert Henry might) not have it all his own way with his own people, howlever. His Pacific Islands Party won 15 of the 22 seats in the House of Assembly elections in 1972. Under the Constitution a two-thirds majority is required to amend jor repeal the Constitution. Sir Albert has such a ! majority. But the distribution of; seats does not reflect accur-i ately his support among! Cook Islanders, 46 per cent! of whom voted last time for! the Opposition Democratic Party under Dr T. R. A.; Davis.

Dr Davis has said that,! I personally, he is more con-! Icerned to see the islands; ■ achieve economic indepen-1 dence than full political au-j tonomy. Some of his sup-j I porters would actually pre-! Ifer to see the islands inte-l ! grated fully with New Zea-1 (■land, sending representatives! Ito the New Zealand Parlia-) Iment, and with their own: (assembly abolished. < While a majority of Cookj 'lslanders would not agree,; (there has been growing con-! (cern about the favouritism; ! shown towards supporters of I the Government and a feel-; jing that the New Zealand ; (connection is necessary to; restrain the nepotism of the! Henry family which supplies! jan unduly large number of! (Cabinet Ministers and; I bureaucrats.

Bureaucracy grows

A growing bureaucracy hasj [become the major industry! (in the islands, providing: (perhaps half the jobs avail-: (able there, and eating up the (scant revenues. Even the’ (benign attitude of the Labour (Government in New Zealand! has been sufficiently dis-.: turbed for it to tell the islanders that money from (New Zealand should be spent on sensible development projects rather than in providing jobs for the family and friends of successful politicians. And well-attested cases of (victimisation of able Cook: Islanders who are known to be Opposition supporters have led to some questioning of the wisdom of New Zealand’s benevolence towards the Henry Government. Development projects, too, have been steered to the islands! which are “pro-Henry” at the! expense of equally deserving! “Opposition” islands. Sir Albert Henry has ex-; pressed concern at the outflow of his labour force to New Zealand and has blamed the decline in some fruit production on the shortage of labour. But there is a vicious circle here. If jobs: were available in the islands!

most Cook Islanders would probably prefer to stay at home; if the Government cannot revive the islands’ economy sufficiently to provide work then the exodus is likely to continue. If Sir Albert Henry declares his country fully independent — and he made firsts steps last year when he devised a national flag and had the New Zealand Prime spell out in an exchange of

1 letters exactly what the ties t between the two territories t are — he probably believes ’ he can order his house more ■ the way he would like it. 3 He is being encouraged, even at the risk of losing - some of his subsidy from - New Zealand, by the recent j discovery of important ; deposits of manganese in i relatively shallow water i among the islands. It was no f coincidence that he raised

I the question of independence while passing through New I Zealand on his way to the law of the sea conference in I Caracas. With his international airport open, a tourist hotel I going up with the help of Air New Zealand, New Zealand assistance for his ship- ! ping service, and the prospect’ of off-shore mining industry revenues, he can probably afford to look for more of the trappings of political independence for what would be one of the tiniest States in the world.

The example of Western Samoa since it achieved independence in 1962 demonstrates that political autonomy need not preclude substantial and continuing assistance from New Zealand for one of this country’s former island territories.