COOK ISLANDS CONTROL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17594, 6 October 1920, Page 6

COOK ISLANDS CONTROL.

With the unanimous approval of both Houses of Parliament, the Government last year created a new department to administer the affairs of Samoa, the Cook Islands and the other dependencies of the Dominion. In the Lower House, Sir James Allen presented the idea of a single Ministerial control of Samoa and the Cook Islands as one of obvious wisdom, and with a view to the more important department absorbing the less - important, the House agreed that the Minister for External Affairs should assume the control of matters previously entrusted to the Native representative in the Cabinet. The leader of the Government in the Legislative Council went further in representing the proposal as " part of the reform " to be carried out in respect to the Dominion's dependencies. Now after an experiment of ten months the Government has asked Parliament to sanction separate control for the Cook Islands, and has presented in support of the change arguments that are entirely unconvincing. None of the objections raised during the debate in the House was answered. The first of these is that there will be two departments to do the work regarded a year ago as a suitable function for one. The'division of responsibility and of administration suggests possibilities of greater disadvantage than unnecessary expense. Mr. Lee says there is no necessity for a single control, but he certainly does not disclose any .necessity for dual control.

I Even more surprising is his contention"'that • Samoa" and j'; the,iCook Islands are not."-interdependent in any way. One Pol:'• the J chief arguments, iri favour of New Zealand's acceptance of the mandate is that the ; ,Samoans v are kinsfolk the Maoris arid. the Rarbtorigaris, and experience m r.*be-, government of Polynesian peoples has fitted the Dominion to 'accept the trust of their cousins in Samoa. This consideration alone points to a vital interdependence of the problems in the two groups, and Mr. Lee's argument is simply r based on geographical distances without; relation .to ethnographical relations and common difficulties in social and commercial organisation. The arguments advanced by , the Prime Minister and Dr., Pomare do not assist a comprehension of the Government's : policy. In facli, the Bill and its explanation create the impression -that tile administration of' Island affairs is not to be guided by considerations of economy and of the interests involved, but is to be divided to suit the, convenience, and perhaps the faculties, of Ministers in the present Government.