Islands specify aid

Press, 7 September 1976, Page 3

Islands specify aid

PA Staff Corres. Rarotong? Industrial development was not wanted i . the Cook Islands, said the islands’ Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr Tupui Henry). Mr Henry, speaking at the official welcome for the visiting Parliamentary delegation from New Zealand, which among other things is studying possibilities of industrial development in the South Pacific, said he did not want to see Rarotonga become industrialised. Industrialisation meant pollution, and there was a constant drive to find solutions for the problems of industrial pollution, he said. Mr Henry, who is the eldest son of the Premier of the Cook Islands (Sir Albert Henry), said there was no unemployment in the Cooks. “You’ve got all our workers in New Zealand, and if they are serving' your needs, then perhaps the better way of compensating for our lost

is to give us more money to make this a better place for New Zealanders coming on holiday,” he said. “We are not interested in nuts and bolts and shoes, but in visitors. “We know where we are going, and we know where our resources lie.” Replying to Mr Henry, the delegation leader, Mr J. F, Luxton, the National M.P. for Piako, said the party's interest was in the whole" Pacific-region. This year, New Zealand will give S6M to the Cook Islands, 25 per cent of the total New Zealand aid to the South Pacific. As well, Mr Henry told reporters travelling with the delegation that they were not very welcome. The Cook Islands had been badly treated in the past by New Zealand journalists, and the four journalists with the: party would “be regarded in; the same light as those who! have been here previously.” !

Considerable publicity has! been given over the last tew years to aspects of the Cook Islands political system and financial accounting. The four journalists on the 3J-week tour of the South Pacific represent the New Zealand Press Association, the "Dominion,” the "Auckland Star” and Radio New Zealand.