The Press MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1974. The Cook Islands now

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33712, 9 December 1974, Page 18

The Press MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1974. The Cook Islands now

After the General Election In the Cook Islands last week Sir Albert Henry’s Cook Islands Party retains control of the Legislative Assembly, but its majority has been reduced below the two-thirds necessary to make constitutional changes. Dissatisfaction with Sir Albert Henry and his family was evident in the polling, but the gain of one seat was sufficient to give Dr T. R. A. Davis and the Democratic Party only eight seats out of 22. The stalemate is an undesirable outcome for the Cook Islands and for New Zealand. The Full Court in New Zealand ruled last month that the Cook Islands Constitution did not contain an implied right of absentee voting. New Zealand was then treated to an unedifying spectacle in which the Opposition party attempted to fly Cook Islanders resident in New Zealand, whom it believed to be its supporters, back to the Cook Islands to vote; the Government there appeared to be making it as difficult as possible for them to do so. Ironically, it is Dr Davis and the Opposition who have emphasised the need for economic self-sufficiency in the Cook Islands to provide employment there and stop the emigration of the working population; yet the sluggish development under Sir Albert Henry has driven perhaps half the Cook Islands’ labour force to seek work, temporarily or permanently, in New Zealand. '<

The internal self-government enjoyed by the Cook Islands was devised by New Zealand 10 years ago, at the islanders’ request, to give them the benefits of continuing association with New Zealand even while they ran their own affairs. This plan is working badly if residence here in New Zealand denies Cook Islanders a say in the affairs of their own country, which remains technically a part of New Zealand. This country’s uncertainty about the relationship has been shown by the transferring of the administration of Cook Islands affairs to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by the inclusion of Cook Islands representatives with quasi-autonomous status in New Zealand delegations to international gatherings. New Zealand has drifted into a position in which it retains important responsibilities towards the Cook Islands but does not necessarily have the authority to discharge these responsibilities. At the same time the islands* governors behave increasingly as though they enjoyed full independence — not at all a bad thing in itself, but something that should be well founded.

The arrangement is quite unsatisfactory: it should be corrected as soon as possible, especially as the Cook Islands pose an increasing financial burden to this country without demonstrating, under Sir Albert Henry, much capacity for desirable economic growth. The Auditor General’s report to Parliament this year noted that between 1970 and 1973 the population of the Cook Islands declined from 21,000 to 20,525, but New Zealand’s annual grant to keep the islands solvent went up from $99 a head to $139. Grants to the Cook Islands are too often used to provide income for public servants there. Government ” is the islands* biggest “ industry ”, The grants are too seldom used to develop productive enterprises. Production of oranges for making juice — an important islands export — has been declining because of the neglect of plantations. The election outcome has quashed the prospect that Sir Albert Henry might declare the islands fully independent. If the Cook Islands are to retain their association with New Zealand, the electoral and financial arrangements must be improved quickly. If any other group of New Zealanders were to be disenfranchised after the manner of the Cook Islanders who have come here the outcry would be ° justified. If Sir Albert Henry’s administration will not mend its ways, and if it continues to insist on its autonomy, Cook Islanders should be subject to the restraints on migration to New Zealand, and the restraints on further grants of money from New Zealand, which this attitude implies.