New Zealand’s Far-flung Island Possessions

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 40 (Supplement)

New Zealand’s Far-flung Island Possessions

A Little Empire In. the South Seas

FAR-FLUNG islands under tropica! skies, with the trade-wind singing in the palms and the surf thundering incessantly on the coral reefs; iron-bound crags breaking the smoking, shouting seas of the Roaring Forties, breeding-places of the sea-lion and the lonely albatross; white floes trodden only hr the comical legions of the penguins .at the fringe of the great Antarctic continent, known only to the venturesome explorer and the hardy hunters of whales. So varied and out-of-the-way are New Zealand’s outposts, whose territories are administered, and whose destinies governed, by the politicians in greystoned Wellington. For the capital of this Dominion is also the capital of, as it were, a minor Empue. situated at the 'world’s end.

Apart from the Chatham Islands, officially icgarded as part of the Dominion proper, although they are several hundred miles off the coast, the territories administered by New Zealand comprise the Ross Dependency in the Antarctic, a number of uninhabited outlying islands, mostly far south of New Zealand, the Kermadecs, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Mandates Territory of Western Samoa, the Tokelau Group, and Nauru. ' Upward of 60 largish islands, islets beyond number, and boundaries as far apart as the Equator and the Pole.

The Chathams The Chathams arc situated 480 miles eastward of Lyttelton, and consist of two large low-lying islands, nearly 400 square miles in extent, the larger enclosing a vast central lagoon. There are about 700 inhabitants, of whom about half are Maoris. The group is constituted a separate county. Fishing and sheep-farming are the main occupations of the islanders, and exports amount to £50,000 in a good year. The Chathams were discovered by Lieutenant Broughton in 1790. They were the last resort of the Moriori people, driven from New Zealand by the coming of the Maori; it is only in the present decade that the last Moriori died. In the ’sixties the rebel Hauhau Maoris captured at Waerenga-a-Hika and Omaranui were deported to. the Chathams, under a ridiculously' small guard. Under the leadership of the famous Te Kooti they seized the visiting schooner Rifleman and made for New Zealand, landing near Poverty Bay, where, with a price on his head, Te Kooti waged guerilla warfare with his pursuers for several years. The Ross Dependency

Of the vast southern continent, New Zealand claims 175,000 square miles bordering on the Ross Sea. The administration of this territory is simple, as it is wholly uninhabited; its only commercial exploitation is whaling in territorial waters, from which New Zealand in former years received a small and sporadic revenue from the sale of licences, The Ross Dependency is named after the famous navigator, Sir James Clark Ross, who, with the ships Erebus and Terror, penetrated the pack ice for the first time in 1841, discovered the Ross Sea, and sighted for the first time the might range of snowy mountain peaks that walls the great continent of Antarctica. Since then almost all the main South Polar expeditions, by which Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen, Byrd, Wilkins and Ellsworth graved their names indelibly in the history of exploration, have planted their bases on the barren shores of the Ross Sea. Fame, if few products of more practical commercial value, has been made in New Zealand's southernmost dependency. The Outlying Isles Mostly' small, all uninhabited by man, the outlying islands under the Dominion governance also possess more of romance than of commercial exploitation. Nearest to the coast, without being actually regarded as an integral part of New Zealand, are the Three Kings, sighted and so named by Tasman, whose passing corresponded with the Feast of the Epiphany iii 1643. On them the Elingamite was wrecked with, heavy loss of life in 1902; and there is a provision depot for castaways on one of the islands. Solander Island and The Snares arc mere barren rocks not far south of Stewart Island, and are the nesting-place of millions of mutton-birds, a species of petrel which when killed and cured forms a national delicacy of Maoriland. Another such cluster of dog-

toothed rocks far to the south of New Zealand are Bounty Isles, discovered by Captain “Breadfruit/ Bligh on his celebrated voyage to Tahiti with the Bounty, which of course ended in mutiny. The Antipodes Islands are another such isolated group. Three hundred miles southward of Bluff are the Auckland Islands, the largest of which is about 27 miles long by 15 wide, and runs up to a height of 2000 feet. The islands were discovered in 1806 by Captain Abraham Bristow, of the sailing ship Ocean. Port Ross, on the northern coast of the main island, was described by D’Urville as one of the world’s best havens of refuge, where a sailing ship could find easy access and safe anchorage in the worst weather. Many a ship was wrecked on the islands, however, in the days of sail; and the castaways of the barque Dundonald were' for seven months on Disappointment Island, living on the flesh of mollyhawk and seal, and living in crude dugouts lined with seabirds’ skins and roofed with manuka scrub. Finally, in a frail coracle of sticks and canvas two of them made a perilous journey' to the main islands, found the provision depot there, and rescued the others with the boat from the depot. I bey were later picked up by the Government steamer Tutanekai. South-east again Iron, the Auckland Islands, a hundred and fifty miles away', is the Campbell Island, a mountainous island 10 miles across, with precipitous cliffs, somewhere beneath which lies the wreck of the vessel General Grant, believed to have gone down in 60 fathoms of water with a cargo of bullion. The treasure has never been found. Rocky coast and rough seas render the diver’s task almost impossible, and of late no expeditions have visited the islands. Until recently it was stocked with sheep and farmed by a number of Tory Channel men. but. although the sheep arc there still, the island has for many years been uninhabited and unvisited, with the cold seas dashing themselves to foam under its granite walls.

The Kermadecs Halfway to Tonga, some 600 miles from Auckland, in the warm sub-tropical waters, are the islands discovered by D’Entrecasteaux and Lieutenant Watts, and named after Huon Kermadec. They are volcanic, eruptions taking place on Sunday Island from time to time. Sunday is the largest, about 7200 acres, in extent, and is very fertile, and capable of maintaining a large population. At present, however, it has only three inhabitants, and the attempts which have been made to settle it in the past have one and all proved abortive. As long ago as 1837 a whaler named James Reid, and a sailor called Baker, went up to Sunday Island with their Maori wives and a number of attendant Natives. A few years later the whale-ship Montezuma found the settlers cowering at the brink of the sea, while behind them the crest of the island flamed in volcanic eruption, lurid against the pall of black smoke hanging over the crater. From 1850 an American, Halstead, and a New Zealander, Cook, were living on the island, until driven to sea by another eruption. Then two men from the Carolines, Johnstone and Covert, opened a tradingpost there, as the island was a whalers’ rendezvous. A blackbirding brig from Callao dumped 200 plaguestricken, kidnapped Tokelau natives on the beach, robbed the store, and sailed away, leaving the traders to bury the dead. A Yorkshireman, Thomas Bell, dwelt on Sunday' Island from 1878 until the Great War. His children and grandchildren were reared on the island. But the later years of his tenancy were marred by disputes with the Government over the ownership of the land, and he died in New Zealand. In 1926 Mr. Alfred Bacon settled on the island, but his companion died of tetanus, and he returned. He went back with Mr. R. Robertson in 1935, and they have been living there since. A party of five other would-be Robinson Crusoes, who spent some months on the island, were brought back to New Zealand last year, destitute and sorry. During the Great War the Kermadecs twice attained prominence—-when the Union Company’s Wairuna was sunk there by the German raider Wolf, and when the scow Moa, seized by the escapee, Count von Luckner, was recaptured there by the cable steamer Iris. Fertile and beautiful islands—but at present wholly undeveloped, sleeping in the warm sub-tropical seas. Niue Island A coral island, about 300 miles east of Tonga, about a dozen miles in circumference, and supporting 4000 Polynesians, Niue, or Savage Island, has a

European population of a score. Its administration is carried out by a Resident Commissioner. Niue was discovered by Cook in 1774. It is, like many of the islands in that part of the Pacific, a high coral structure, apparently the product of a submarine upheaval. Although Cook regarded the behaviour of the natives as menacing, they are actually a peaceful people. Unlike most Polynesian communities, they have no chiefs, and every man owns his plot of land. As the Government motor-ship Maui Pornare calls regularly at monthly intervals, Niue has a certain amount of external trade, and exports some £12,000 worth of copra, bananas, kumcras, hats of plaited pandanus, and plaited baskets and fungus.

The Cook Islands New Zealand’s principal dependency, the Cook Group, comprises the rich and beautiful tropic isle of Rarotonga, the capital, as well as Aitutaki, Atiu, Mitiaro, Mauke, Mangala. Manuae, Palmerston, and Takutea, in the southern group, and some 10. degrees farther north Penrhyn, Rakahanga, Manahiki. Pukapuka, Nassau, and Suwarrow. Rarotonga’s mountains run up to 2500 feet, rugged and bold, with brown crags projecting from the heavy verdure of tropical jungle. Coconut plantations fringe the sea. In the island gardens and groves grow taro and mummy-apple, yam and sweet potato, banana, Orange, tapioca, arrowroot, avocado pear, mango and orange. Rarotonga has put out as many as 72,000 cases of oranges, 50,000 of bananas, and 30,000 of tomatoes in a good year, the total value of her exports being nearly £70,000. Oranges and copra are the main products of the outer islands, Aitutaki being the only one with at all a large output, exporting in good times 25,700 cases of oranges and 500 tons of copra, to the value of £15,000. These islands are inhabited by pure Polynesians, akin to the Maori of New Zealand. Many are rich in history, both European and native. Most of the northern islands are atolls of great natural charm. Manuae, an atoll midway between Aitutaki and Atiu, was the first of the Cook Islands discovered by that navigator, whose name they bear. Atiu is a high island, and is famous for its black oranges, the sweetest in the Pacific, according to repute. The eels of Mitiaro are a great delicacy, while sandalwood also is found there. The uninhabited island of Takutea is the breeding-place of the red-tailed bosun-bird, whose feathers arc in great demand among the natives of those parts. Palmerston Island is occupied by about 100 descendants of William Masters, and a peculiar dialect Of English is spoken there. It was the first island discovered in the South Sea, the San Pablo of .Magellan, The huge lagoon at Tongareva, or Penrhyn, is a dozen miles across, and is one of the most famous pearl lagoons in the Pacific. Manahiki, too, was formerly a resort of pearlers, but the shell has been cleaned out, and there is little diving to-day. Suwarrow fs an treasure has been found there in the past, and it is believed that there are still undiscovered hoards of island round which much romance centres, as buried

gold. Tt is a bird sanctuary.

Western Samoa Under mandate from the League of, Nations Britain administers the islands of Savai’i, Upolo, Apolima and Manono, Western Samoa. These islands were discovered by the Dutch in 1721. About the middle of last century Germany, Britain and the United States all appointed representatives to Samoa, which was then torn with internecine strife, rival chiefs claiming the chieftainship of the isles. Samoa was a scene of constant international, inter-racial, and factional tension, and finally at the beginning of this century Britain renounced her claims there. Western Samoa was adminstered by Germany until the Great War, when a New Zealand expedition occupied it. Since then political intrigue and disturbance has constantly interrupted the smooth running of the New Zealand administration. Although the natives, members of perhaps the finest and most intelligent Polynesian people other than the Maori, care little for European customs and consequently do not care for commercialisation. Western Samoa produces copra, cocoa, and bananas to the extent of £300,000 to £700,000 annually. The social system of the Samoans is, as far as it goes, perfect. It is based on the family group; it precludes the possibility of poverty, and ensures equitable distribution of property and food. As money does not enter into the scheme of things, Chinese and Mela-

nesian labour is imported, there being usually some 500 Chinese and 100 Solomon Islanders in the territory. There are about 400 Europeans, and more than 50,000 native Samoans. Next to Fiji, Samoa is certainly the most important British possession in the South Seas, both from the number of its inhabitants and the value of their interests. Nau.ru Island A small and isolated island on the Equator north and slightly west of New Zealand, between the Gilbert and Solomon Islands, Nauru is important on account of its vast phosphate deposits. It was formerly called “Pleasant Island,” and until annexed by Germany in 1888 a beachcombers’ mecca. The discovery of the island’s wealth was wholly accidental, Mr. A. F. Ellis, now Sir Albert Ellis, of Auckland, recognising a piece of rock from the island, used as a door-prop in a Sydney office, as a piece of pure phosphate. During tire war the island passed into British hands. In 1919 the New Zealand, Australian, and British Governments took over the working of the phosphate, and set up the British Phosphate Commission to control it. As Nauru is in deep water, -without anchorage, moorings of unparalleled depth have been laid on the sea bottom, and vessels load automatically through giant cantilevers reaching over from the reef edge. Shipments of phosphate in 1936 from Nauru amounted to 506,000 tons.