COOK ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13673, 14 February 1908, Page 8

COOK ISLANDS.

[tllOif 'OUR OWN COKRESPOKBENTS.] RAROTONGA. February 5. The vital statistics for the Island of Earotonga for the year 1907 are. as follow:— Births, 83; deaths, 89; marriages, 41. The births equal 34 per 1000 of the population; deaths, 26.5 per 1000; marriages, 16.8 per 1000. .'.,■, Other statistics are also now to hand for 1907, and have been published in the local Government Gazette as follows: Revenue for quarter ended December 31, 1907: Customs duties, £690 1.5s 6d; traders' licenses, £70 ss; stamps, £66 15s 7d; fees, High Court, £46-13 a ,6d; fees, Land Titles Court, £114- 6s 6d; fees, Arikis' Court, £9 4s; fees, R.M. Court, Mangaia, £32 5s 6d; fees, R.M. Court, Aitutaki, £27 5s 6d; rents, £31; shipping fees, £1 Is; miscellaneous, 12s 6d; total, £1097 12s 7d. Accounts for quarter ended December 31, 1907: Balance September 30, 1907, £3154 14s 2d; receipts, general revenue, £1097 12s 7d; receipts, liquor sales, £129 8s lid; receipts, Government sehoonei account, £62 13s 3d; total, £4444 8s lid.Expenditure- General, £1396 163 7d; liquor expenses, £120 9s 4d; Government schooner account, £169 7s 4d; balance to credit, £2757 15s 8d; total, £4444 8s lid. The election for the three members of the Raroonga Council is fixed for April 16, 1908. One member is to be elected for each of thj three districts of Karotonga, viz., Avarua, Takitumu, and Arorangi. Members must be natives and the electors must be natives. Europeans have no franchise, nor is an European eligible for election as member. In the Cook Islands the European residents have no representation of any kind in the Government administration. In a Government Gazette issued on January 17, 1908, the Resident Commissioner sets forth that tho landowners in the Cook Islands should understand that the effect of a title obtained through the Land Titles Court vests the land absolutely in the owners who are registered in the books of the Court: that the ancient right of the chief or head of tho family to set up a, "ranei (taboo) as against any one of the owners of the land no longer exists. Neither arikis nor mataipos (chiefs) have either right or jurisdiction over lands awarded to their followers by the Land Titles Court, unless a servitude or obligation is disclosed by the books of the Court. The Resident Commissioner goes on to say that it " cannot bo too often repeated that a man is now lord over his own land, and no one dare interfere with him unless he is such a fool as to allow interference. I have made the people free, but I cannot give a man the heart of a toa (brave) if ho has it not." . Some irritation was felt by our fruit shippers when the news arrived by the Manapouri that a few consignments of bananas to Wellington had been condemned. We all maintain that the fruit fly does not exist in the Cook Islands. We have experts hero who have carefully examined our fruit, and it has been declared that we are quite free from the pest. Our losses on fruit consignments have surely been enough without the New Zealand Government penalising it further.

MANGAIA January 31. We had a fairly good day for observing the eclipse of the sun on the 3rd mat. (the 4th of New Zealand time), which was seen in Mangaia as a partial eclipse, between 9 a.m. and noon about one-fifth of the suns disc being obscured on the north-east side of the great luminary. The reduced sunlight had a most unnatural appearance during the height of the eclipse, and the heat was perceptibly less. . ~'-,'■,,' The mild recrudescence of native trouble that took place a short time ago, when some of the old-time leaders, called.kavanas, ot Oneroa took upon themselves to establish an illegal ranei, or restriction, on the use ot the cqfcoanuts of the island, and to fine people for breaking their illegal ranei, soon hzzled out" when the Resident Agent made them disgorge. It was their old-time way of levying blackmail on the people•An attempt was also made by one of the same kavanas and a few others to prevent the Ivirua people from using one of the principal landing places, because he and his connections owned the land round about it. Tbev were soon taught that the Government would not allow the rights of the public to the use of the thoroughfares and landing places to be interfered with, and so the matter ended.