RADIO STATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22643, 3 February 1937, Page 12

RADIO STATIONS

PACIFIC ISLANDS

THREE INSTALLATIONS UNITS OF COOK GROUP [BT TELEGRAPH —FKKSS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Tuesday Advice received from Rarotonga states that supplies and equipment for the establishment of a wireless station on Manihiki, one of the northern islands of the Cook Group, have arrived, and it is expected that communication will be established in March. After the hurricane season stations will also be established on the islands of Pukapuka and Penrhyn in the same group.

The islands in the northern group have had no radio communication with the outside world, and this situation was responsible for much, anxiety when a severe hurricane swept the Cook Islands in 1935, as it was impossible to find out what had happened to the population of 1761 until the visit of the Government lighthouse steamer Matai. The parent station is to be erected on Manihiki, which is 650 miles north of Rarotonga. The island has an area of 1250 acres and a population of 416. Its products are copra and pearl shell. Penrhyn Island is the largest and most northerly of the group with an area of 4000 acres and a population of 393. The Pukapuka or Danger Islands are the most isolated of the group. They lie some 720 miles north-west from Rarotonga, and are rarely visited more than once a year. The islands produce copra and bananas and there is a population of 512. Other islands in the northern group are Suwarrow, Palmerston, Nassau and Rakahanga.