THE COOK ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15650, 2 July 1914, Page 6

THE COOK ISLANDS.

It has been estimated that £80,000 is paid each year by New Zealand dealers for Cook Islands fruit. As the greater part of this sum goes to the Islands in the shape of general merchandise, it may be said that the charge annually made upon the New Zealand revenues to provide for the cost of the administration of the . Dominion's Pacific dependencies is justified, to some extent, by tho value of this increasing volumo of trade. Peoplo in the Cook Islands have complained, on occasion, that the New Zealand Government has not done enough for them in carrying out public works and establishing efficient health and education departments. They appear to forget that tho whole of the Dominion's available revenue is required for the prosecution of public works and for the establishment of public facilities in New Zealand itself, and that the New Zealand taxpayer will not contemplate with equanimity the expenditure of large sums of money elsewhere unless he has cause to regard the proceeding as a reasonably safe investment. A steady expansion in the trade of the Cook Islands would not only tend to 'make their revenue exceed their expenditure and thus provide money for developmental works, but would also justify the New Zealand Government in increasing the vote for the Islands administration. A larger volume of trade, however, cannot be expected so long as the greater portion of the land in the group is held by natives who will neither attempt to increase its productiveness themselves nor lease it to those who will .With their, low

standard of comfort, the Cook Islands natives find that the cocoanut and orange trees which grow wild ,'pon their uncultivated lands give them a sufficient return to provide for all their needs. Even those who are inclined to display a little industry will not establish plantations when they know that the less industrious persons, who share with them the privileges of a land title, will participate equally in the rewards of their work.

Previous Cook Islands administrations allowed the laws affecting the group to drift into a condition of entanglement that is now greatly handicapping the present Resident Commissioner, and can only be remedied- by the comprehensive measure that will be submitted to the present session of the Dominion Parliament. These administrations

and the Continuous Government from which they took their instructions, are also responsible for the issue of land titles under the communal system which has worked so much harm in New Zealand. Tho individualisation of land titles; the introduction of regulations which will induce the natives to make their lands more productive; a mora effective department of public health, which will reduce the death-rate that now more than counteracts the high birth-rate; the protection of Cook Islands fruitwhich is inspected and guaranteed clean against the competition in the New Zealand markets of uninspected fruit produced by cheap Chinese labour -in. the French islands; tho establishment of a system of education by which the natives may obtain a knowledge of English; and the revision of the laws, so that they are less anomalous, unjust and absurd than at present; are among the more urgent requirements of the Cook Islands.