THE COOK ISLANDS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1116, 2 May 1911, Page 6

THE COOK ISLANDS.

. i CHARGES TO BE HEARR SIR : ROBERT STOUT- TO GO.; - The Government lias definitely decided that the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) shall proceed to the Cook Islands to hear a charge of the murder of a native that lias been preferred against IV. J. AVigmore, a resident. Sir Robert Stout will leavo for Rarotonga by the mail steamer in June. Reforence has been made in The 'Dominion before to .the case under notice, and the Government authorities consider that a member of .' the . Supreme Court Bench should hear the charges. Sir Robert Stout will be-accompanied by Mr. 11. H. Ostler, Crown Prosecutor nt* Wellington, who will, conduct the case for. the -Crown. ' While at the Islands' tb? Chief Justice will also investigate the state of affairs locally, references to which have from .ime to time been made in the columns of The Dominion, and with ths details of which the public will be now familiar. Sir Robert Stout will not be appointed a Royal Commissioner, and in this course the Government are following the procedure adopted when Sir James Prendergast was sent to Rarotonga in 1893. The Minister in charge of the Cook Islands, the Hon. J. Carroll, states he would probably have'made tho trip himself were .the" 1 Prime 'Minister, whoso placp ho has temporarily taken, not absent iu England. At one timo it was proposed to send tho Police Commissioner (Mr. Waldegrave).