COOK ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10081, 17 March 1896, Page 6

COOK ISLANDS.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Rarotonga, March 5. On the last Sunday in every February it has been the custom in the native churches for many years to have a day of prayer and humiliation to propitiate the Great Ruler of the Huricane. If March passes without the dreaded visitation the last Sunday in that month is devoted to thanksgiving. So you will see thab March is our most trying month. If we pass the 21st we are considered safe. So far the weather, though hot and oppressive for tho last fortnight, has shown no signal of danger, and we live in hopes of seeing the month through without a casualty that would tell heavily on our coffee crop, and in many ways be dangerous to life and property.

The sensation of the month has been the alleged terrible torture of a native of Rurutu (French Protectorate), who in living at Arorangi in this island. Charged with stealing a box containing the tax collected under the Education Act, he was said to have been handcuffed and suspended for thirty hours from a beam by a rope tied to the handcuffs. The object was to extort confession. It was apparently a great chance for those who delight to attack tno native Government, and was not allowed to pass. The most harrowing accounts were ,circulated, and grew as they went. The British Resident hold an official inquiry, and came to the conclusion that the man had been cruelly tied up for, at the furthest, one hour, though handcuffed for twenty-six. The worst feature is tho revival of this old Maori practice, to extort confession. The only injury done to the man was that one of his arms was too stiff for use for the following two days, but the case has been so thoroughly public and tho Maoris themselves hare been so shamed over it, that we shall probably hear no more of such doings. And it is to be hoped not. The Resident stated that if the man claimed compensation he would lee that he got it, but no such claim has been made as the victim is living contentedly with his Arorangi tormentors.

Queen Pa still lingers, but is not expected by anyone to rally. After her death will come the trouble as to who shall succeed her; a trouble at present in abeyance out of respect and pergonal regard for her on tho part of her chiefs and people. From Aitutaki we have accounts of an uprising of the fair sex. The men have taken to making and drinking bush beer (from oranges and bananas) on that island. The police join the drinkers or at all events wink at them. The women have taken the law into their own hands, organised themsolves as a police, and lead the bush beer drinkers a dog's life. The Male government protests, and the women were brought before it to be reprimanded, A touching address on their proper place in society was delivered by one of the bush-beer-drinking arikis (kings), of whom there are three in Aitutaki. He asked the women if they were not ashamed, and if they wished to wear the piripos—which is the Maori for breeches, and quoted Scripture to them with great power. But they were equal to the occasion. They admitted their desire to wear the piripos if the men were unworthy to have them for themselves, and quoted Scripture for Scripture in their justification. The sitting was long and lias excited great interest 011 the island. The local government are non-plussed and have appealed to the Resident, who tells them that they must settle their differences with the ladies as they best can, and suggests that the propor way will be to disarm them by making the men police do their duty, or putting others in their place. The police question is still a burning one. With great difficulty* the great bodies of police in each of the islands were broken up about two years ago, and the number reduced to about one-twelfth. The other eleven-twelfths have nob yet become resigned to the loss of power and of fine money which the reduction brought upon them. Hence the neglect of which complaint is made at Aitutaki. At another island, Mangaia, there were 155 of these ' policemen, and they were reduced to 12. But, little by little, they creep back, spy upon the people, and exact fines from them, which thiy share with some of the chiefs. The people who suffer are too used to it to complain, bub the Resident, hearing of the proceedings, has Inquired, and finds the reports correct. It is a happy sign to find, however, that the people t-n much less quiet under tho police infliction than they wore formerly, and that a sense of personal rights is evidently, though slowly, growing among them. Mangaia was for many years the centre of this legal police tyranny. Now, at all events, its exercise is illegal, and whatever occasional ebullitions there may be, the system lias received a blow from which it cannot recover.

Ab all the other islands—excepting the land trouble of the German trader ab Mauke, of' which I have already informed you—matters are proceeding quietly, and it is wonderful there are nob more troubles to tell, for these are our dull months, with few ships, very littlo movement, and very little trade. In fact, it is our " big gooseberry" season. In another month we shall be thinking of the coffee and the orange and copra crops, and there will be less time for the mischief proverbially found for idle li'inds to do.