Cook Islands ‘not a New Zealand colony’

Press, 23 April 1984, Page 4

Cook Islands ‘not a New Zealand colony’

PA Auckland The Cook Islands Government is trying hard to convince African and Caribbean countries it is not a New Zealand colony, says Mr laveta Short, the new Cook Islands Consular Affairs Officer in Auckland.

He said yesterday that the attitude of those countries was hindering the Cook Islands’ admission to a European Economic Community convention.

Mr Short said a Cook Islands delegation was seeking admission to the convention at a meeting of E.E.C.

officials in Suva this week.

His country wanted to benefit from loans and grants the E.E.C. made available to African and Pacific countries under the convention, he said. “there is a myth in African and Caribbean countries regarding our relationship with New Zealand. The Pacific countries support our membership. “Our relationship is a purposeful and meaningful one and more and more countries^ such as the United States and France are look-

ing towards our system.”

He said France and the United States were adopting the concept of independence with free association as an option for former Pacific territories.

Mr Short said his impression was that some African States thought New Zealand dominated the Cook Islands in a colonial fashion and that the Cook Islands constitution was only window dressing. “We have a lot more say than many independent nations in our own affairs,” he said.