COOK ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12524, 17 March 1904, Page 6

COOK ISLANDS.

[FEOlt OTTB OWN COBBESPOXDKXT.] Rarotoxga, March 9. By -the arrival of the < Union Company's steamer Taviuni from Auckland on February 29 we received the news of the RussoJapanese war. Our latest date from Auckland 'was February 23, and we will not have news again until the return of the Taviuni, three weeks hence. Our oranges are now rupidK ripening, and considerable quantity will bo shipped by the present outgoing steamer. Bananas are plentiful, and all the growing crops look well We have had heavy rains during the last month, but no squally weather. We are now well into the month of March, the hurricane month, and are experiencing beautiful sunny weather, with light easterly winds. I The auxiliary schooner Vaite, Captain Harries, arrived from Penrkyn and the Northern Islands on February 24, after a three ' months' absence. The schooner I brought a ■full cargo of copra ana pearl-shell | foi transhipment to New Zealand. The Vaite left again for the group on the- sth ;inst. | A Government Gazette has been published : declaring a " ranei," or close season, for | copra, at the island of Aitutaki, from March j 1 to Juno 50.' I believe there is also a j" ranei" on all other islands of the group (except Rarotouga). for the same period. Coffee will be ready for picking next inmth, and limes are maturing, so that limejuice will also be manufactured shortly. In the London Missionary Society's monthly newspaper. To Karere, under date March,* 1904, the following paragraph appears : —"Statistics of Rarotonga, : 1903: , Births, 55 ; deaths, 94 ; marriages, 45. The [ melancholy fact stares us in the face that I'there have been 39 more deaths than births during the year that is past. Allowing for deaths caused by the after affects of influenza, there is evidently a serious decliho going on i>- the Maori population. In all the islands of the Cook Group the population is either stationary or declining in numbers." Our island has been very quiet for the last month. Business has been dull, and of afiurs both political and social there ij nothing to report of any importance. A sex-ions accident happened in February to one of our old and esteemed residents, Captain J. Engeeke, on bis farm homestead, at Nikao (Rarotonga). It appears that on i tending his cattle lie was rushed by a young bull and severely gored. Engeeke was in a very serious state for a week or two, but is ! now, I hear, rapidly improving, Under the care of Dr. H. R. Gatley at the local hospital. '' ; ' ■: ' -;>'; "The principals of many of mu business houses are at present absent from the island. Mr. Percy Brown, of the Cook-Is-lands Trading Company, is away at Nine. Mr. G. J Matthews, of Messrs. Donald and Edenborough, is at Auckland. Mr. A. von Hoff, of the Societe Commercial, is away at Tahiti, and Mr. G. Piltz is at Aitutaki. : Mr. G. Blaire. registrar of the High Court, has been indisposed for the last month, and unable to attend to his duties. I am glad, however, to bear that Mr. Blairo is now much improved, and will shortly be at his office again. The Government schooner Countess of Ranfurly is expected back from Nine and the Northern. Islands early in April. The natives of Avatiu are to be congratulated for their excellent work on their new bridge over the stream abreast of the Avatiu Harbour. 1 believe the local Government found, the material, but the natives did all the work free of cost. Other bridges on the south side of the island are in contemplation. Tepow-Teaia, an influential chief of the Takitumu district, died on the 2nd inst. One of the students of the Loudon Missionary Society s Mission was accidentally drowned whilst fishing at night on the reef last week. The caretaker of the Catholic Mission, Mr. Tehema, : was taken suddenly ill last Monday, and died a day or two afterwards. "Tehema had erectedj with little or no assistance, three churches on this island for his mission; it had taken seven years to do the work. The steamer Taviuni this trip makes her first call for the year at the French islands of Raiatei and Huahine, te obtain oranges, to compete against Cook Island fruit in the New Zealand market. The steamer will call at these islands from this trip on throughout the year until the orange season is over. Many thousands of cases are shipped every trip, which will glut the market, and the consequence will probably be again disastrous to Cook Island shippers. We have plenty of oranges hero to over and above supply New Zealand's wants, without going tc the French islands. Our local growers are very sore on. this point. When the Parliamentary party were here last year a petition was handed in to them askingfor protection in this line. Where is the Preferential Tariff Committee, and why were not oranges put on the list, especially when the members had full cognisance of the position? New Zealand has taken np the burden in annexing these islands, and there should not be the least hesitation in protecting our produce against foreign importations. Fruit is our principal export, and New Zealand is our nearest neighbour, and it behoves JSew Zealand to help us to its utmost. ', ( ... (:■ '«. Coffee also needs protection. Of this commodity also we can easily supply all New Zealand's wants, and yet New Zealand is flooded with cheap Central American coffee, which cornes in duty free, and competes very seriously with our Cook Island product. These points our growers wish dinned into the ears of our New Zealand legislators. At present we have no representation, and have no means of making our wants publicly known, and it is to be hoped that the members of the House will read this article carefully, and make the necessary comments thereon, and thus help to solve the problem as to whether the Cook Islands mav become a successful acquisition to New Zealand, which is easy of accomplishment; or if our wants are disregarded we may possibly become only a. drag on the New Zealand taxpayer. Of course, this is not the case at present. To a certain extent, it is true, the New Zealand Government pay the salary of the Resident Commissioner, and I understand our local revenue covers all other expenditure, and even leaves a surplus. It also must not be forgotten that the Cook Islands Government pay al' the expense incurred in running the schooner Countess of Ranfurly. All this, however, does not help the tillers of the soil, and that is where the wealth ought to lie; assist them and you assist the Cook Islands.