COOK ISLAND PROGRESS,

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18708, 14 May 1924, Page 12

COOK ISLAND PROGRESS,

NEW CHIEF POST OFFICE. GREAT HELP TO TRADE. WIRELESS t INSTALLATIONS. ■ AITUTAKI AND MANGAIA.. •' [by TELEGRAPH. —PRESS • ASSOCIATION.] ' ■ '■ ;' .; WELLINGTON. Tuesday. The Minister in v charge of the Cook Islands, Sir Maui v Pomare, has received h the v following • radio message from"" the Resident Com-, missioner:—"Post . office, Rarotonga', created a chief post office from to-day." This marks a very interesting and important development in the administration of j affairs in the Cook X group. Hitherto, for all postal and savings bank purposes, Rarotonga has been regarded as a sub-district ; office ' attached to and worked from the chief post office at Auckland. While this system was quite convenient • from the point of view of ordinary postal business it has not been so in connection with savings bank matters. Not only Rarotonga, but all other islands in the group, to name a few:—- . Aitutaki, - Mangaia, Mauke, Atiu, Perirhyn, and Manahiki, have had ■ similar status as sub-district offices with all their business to be transacted through Auckland by way of 'Rarotonga. This system meant that the people in the islands have been practically without anything in the nature of ordinary banking facilities. They -have, of course, been able to make deposits at Rarotonga, but not to withdraw except after reference to Auckland, which naturally has meant long and tedious delays. It was .therefore decided, with the concurrence of the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department,., to create' Rarotonga a chief post office for all purposes. ,

r The Experience In Samoa. In order to enable the change over to be made smoothly and expeditiously the department lent ; Mr. H. M. Tremewan, one of its experienced accounting officers, to the Cook Islands Administration. Mr. Tremewan went down by the, last trip of the Tahiti, and the radiogram , quoted above is the first result of his arrival.

It will be a matter of . surprise to the people of New Zealand to learn that in four years in which a post office savings bank has been in operation in Western Samoa no less than £40,000 is now held to the credit of depositors. The experiment in 1920 was entirely new and there was nothing to guide the authorities in making any estimate as to the business likely to be done. It is evident that the post office has been the ' means of promoting thrift among the ' people of Samoa. ' ■ ■

• So successful has been the post office at Apia that the Administration has recently opened branches at Alieapata, at the extreme eastern end of the island of Upolu, and at Fagamalo, in the Island of Savaii, to give greater facilities to Samoan people for investing their savings.

Expansion of Radio Work. It is fully expected from the experience iin Samoa that the granting of full sayings bank facilities to the people of the Cook Islands will result in a similar substantial increase in «the post office savings bank there. , Irt addition these . fuller facilities will assist trade and commerce both ?within and outside the group. '• Mr. ' J. H. Hampton, superintendent of Rarotonga Radio, and My. E. A Re?d, inspectoi of : works, Cook . Islands Ad(ministration, have left Rarownga by the steamer Ngakuta for the island of Aitutaki to open a' wireless < station there. They were accompanied by two Eurotongan boys, who recently "went through a course of training at a wireles college in Wellington and' returned to their island home, to take up their work, by the Tahiti. * As soon as the radio work is completed at Aitutaki Messrs. Hampton and Reid will proceed to the Island of Marigaift' to erect and open a wireless station there. ; i .. ■