THE ANNEXATION OF THE COOK ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11533, 19 November 1900, Page 5

THE ANNEXATION OF THE COOK ISLANDS.

[from our OWN correspondent.] Rarotonga, November 8. It is one month to-day since Annexation Day, when the Cook Islands were formally annexed by the Earl of Ranfurly on his visit in H.M.s. Mildura. The great question now remains : How is the Government to be administered in the future? The present native rulers appear to be tinder the impression that there will be no change in tho administration of affairs, but there is no doubt that they have, of their own will, ceded the Islands to British sovereignty " for ever," as the proclamation reads, and it remains for the British Government to say as to what shape the future administration of affairs is to take. The slow progress in the past of these islands is without doubt accounted for in the non-cultivation of valuable waste lands. Under the past tenure the land is vested in a few chiefs, who have their tribes living under them on these lands. The natives will not cultivate the lands, neither will they allow others to do so. Certain foreigners have been enabled to lease lands from the chiefs, but from some reason or other all plantations have been a failure. Much money has been spent, and very little returns have been the result. To make a plantation pay expenses and show a profit, labour must, bo cheapened very much more than at present. The Rarotongan native does not care to do continual work; he is independent; his oranges, bananas, cocoanuts, etc., grow with little trouble, and his wants are few, and so affairs go on year after year. Labour must be imported from elsewhere to cultivate the rich lands now lying idle, and the native landowners must be brought to understand that if they are not willing or able to cultivate their lands they must allow others to do so for them. The general opinion of traders is that the annexation will be greatly beneficial tr. the Islands; it may be so if the future Administration has due care as to the ability of the islanders to bear extra taxes, extra duties, and the like. If a heavy burden is put or. the people all at once, the result will be mora than fatal; dissatisfaction will be imbued in their minds, and a race of people, once light-hearted, gay, and happy, will become tax-burdened, morose, and selfish. The germs of heathendom are hardly yet erased, and are quite liable to break out afresh under aggression. The natives of Eastern Polynesia are a trustful and openhearted race; they have welcomed, and will welcome, European government, but that government must be administered with moderation and care, in order to maintain confidcnce in their already too credulous minds.