Cooks ‘happy’ with N.Z. industry plans

Press, 14 September 1976, Page 11

Cooks ‘happy’ with N.Z. industry plans

NZPA Rarotonga The Cook Islands are 'Very happy” with New Zealand’s scheme to promote industrial development in the South Pacific, the Cook Islands premier (Sir Albert Henry) has said. In an interview in Rarotonga, Sir A'hert disclaimed the views of his eldest son Mr Tupui Henry, the Minister of Internal Affairs, who said the Cooks did not want industry, which would bring pollution. After meeting the New Zealand Parliamentary delegation touring the South Pacific. Sir Albert said he had "made it quite clear we are very happy with the New Zealand plans.” The delegation, headed by the junior Government whip (Mr J. F. Luxton. Piako), who chairs the South Pacific Industrial Development Committee, said earlier he had been told by Sir Albert that the Cooks would like to see more industry which used

raw materials available in the Islands. > But his Government doubted the value of industries which relied on importing the basic product from New Zealand and merely finishing it in the Islands. "We want industries where our resources and raw materials are used,” said Sir Albert. Earlier, the Cooks Industries Minister (Mr George Ellis) told the delegation that the Government had only recently developed its policy on industrial development after recognising the need to broaden the Islands’ economic base at present reliant on citrus and other agricultural producing. New Zealand had been asked for help in establishing an industrial estate and under the development scheme would be asked to help provide development finance for industries interested in the Cooks, provide incentives to companies setting up in

the Islands, and help with side development and the training of Cook Islanders to take full advantage of the new employment opportunities. The establishment of industry in the Cooks would help attract back from New Zealand the large proportion of working-age Cook Islanders now living in New Zealand who had left the country with barely sufficient manpower to meet the present. demand on Rarotonga. The committee, which is accompanied oy Mr Heurry Martin, the director-general of the Manufacturing Federation, has left Rarotonga for Tonga, the last of the central South Pacific Island nations with which New Zealand has close traditional ties. From Tonga, the delegation will travel to the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea.