Chatham Islanders seek justice outside N.Z.

Press, 21 May 1988, Page 34

Chatham Islanders seek justice outside N.Z.

By

OLIVER RIDDELL,

Political reporter

Chatham Islanders have had to go outside their own country to find simple justice, according to representatives of the Chathams at an international conference in Tasmania. The interests of the Chathams at the Islands 88 Conference at Hobart was represented by the two leaders of the island.

The chairman of the Chatham Islands County Council, Mr Bunty Preece, and the deputy chairman, Mr Pat Smith, took a full dossier on the Chathams to the conference. Central Government systems and policies had hindered regional development for the Chathams, they said.

The location of the Chathams, 800 km offshore, had been used against it; the natural re-

sources of the zone had been and were used in the best interests of New Zealand as a whole but at the expense of the Chathams’ natural resources. All natural resources were limited, but particularly those belonging to an outer island like the Chathams, they said. Their county would “stand and defend” against any further infringement made on it for further exploitation. The county must ensure that future generations of Chatham Islanders had the social and economic security due to them, but the decisions of the Government in Wellington benefited the whole at the expense of the part in the case of the Chathams, said Mr Preece and Mr Smith. Clinical decisions were being made on resources and finance that took no account of the human factor on the Chathams.

Island aspirations were being ignored and the Chatham Islands County Council was seeking ways to ensure a stable and viable future for its people.

The South Pacific was littered with examples of the complacency shown to small islands by large countries, they said. Eyes were opened only when last-resort measures were taken — the threat of transferring the problem area to another power. That was a measure of desperation, but people were becoming desperate. It was a pity politicians could not see the great benefits small islands contributed to the wealth of their mother countries, said Mr Preece and Mr Smith. The Chatham Islands had waited more than 150 years for simple justice, and now had to go outside New Zealand to find it.