Govt members to visit Cook Islands

Press, 28 March 1983, Page 30

Govt members to visit Cook Islands

NZPA political reporter Rarotonga

New Zealand members of Parliament will have an early chance to survey the political scene in the Cook Islands after the election on Wednesday. Seven members of Parliament are expected in the islands next month on board a Civil Aviation Fokker Friendship 27 flight which is checking Pacific navigational aids.

The leader of the party, the Under-Secretary of Agriculture, Mr Austin, said that the group would not know the final Cooks itinerary arrangements until they landed in Rarotonga, because of the election.

“Things are in a state of flux there,” Mr Austin said. The calibration flight will leave New Zealand on April 7, travelling to the Cooks, Nuie, Tonga, and Western

Samoa, and will return »/ April 17.

Other Government members on the trip are Mr D. A. Angus, of Wallace, Mr R. M.'Gray, of Clutha, and Mr R. N. McClay, of Taupo. Labour members making the 10-day tour are Mr W. D. Jeffries (Heretaunga), Dr G. A. Wall (Porirua), and Mr T. J. Young (Eastern Hutt).

Mr Austin said that the flight gives the group a chance to renew or make contacts with South Pacific politicians, and to see aid projects that New Zealand was engaged in. Sir Thomas Davis’s ruling Democratic Party faces a challenge from the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Geoffrey Henry’s Cook Island Party, in what has been a low-key election campaign so far.

A third party, the Unity Movement, is also contesting the election.