Premier wrote anthem

Press, 17 July 1979, Page 6

Premier wrote anthem

PA Auckland The songwriting team behind the latest “hit” single to sweep the Cook Islands is none other than the newlywed Premier, Dr Tom Davis, and his wife, Pa Tepaeru Ariki.

The song is the Cooks’ first national anthem, entitled “Te Atau Mou E” (God is Truth). The musical Premier and his wife secretly entered a national competition to compose an anthem—and won.

“She wrote the words and I wrote the music,” Dr Davis told 40 guests at an official function at the Cook Islands office in Parnell yesterday. The occasion was to show off not only the anthem but the nation’s new flag. Unlike the anthem, which has a distinctive Polynesian flavour,! the flag has returned to more traditional Commonwealth i lines.

The old flag has 15 gold stars, representing the islands, on a green back ground. The new one has a Union Jack in one corner and 15 red stars on a blue background. Dr Davis said the new flag

design was chosen in another competition in 1975, but it was discarded by the party of the formed Premier, Sir Albert Henry. The new flag recognised the Commonwealth and was a “true flag for all the people, not just a political party or faction.” Fortunately fo r Dr Davis, i

his winning anthem entry was not mothballed, but he insisted he had nothing to do with the judging. “We entered it under a nom-de-plume: no-one knew it was us. The judging waS very close,” he said. The $lOO first prize money “went to paying the band Iwho recorded it.”