COOK ISLAND LANDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2842, 2 September 1908, Page 15

COOK ISLAND LANDS.

COMMISSIONER'S REPORT.

Ik his annual report Colonel Gudgeon, Resident Commissioner of the Cook group says he can justly claim that 99 out of every 100 natives hold the Land litles Court in such estimation that there was not the least hesitation in leaving their sole interest in life in the hands of the court. Referring to the administration of the- land, the commissioner states that a quarter of an acre of swamp planted with taro would well nigh produce the food required for a man to live upon, and a few acres of orange trees and bananas would provide produce for export sufficient to purchase the simple clothing suitable for the climate. The big men had land to spare, and if they would usa^ it in even the crudest- manner by giving the people a fixed share of the produce they might be wealthy men. This they would not do, and therefore the only opening to such, jxuen has been by leasing to Europeans, who' would' force the land to, produce to the utmost limit of its capacity. Missionaries and others in-■s-eKesbed, at least in the natives, were much exercised in mind over the fact that ;v small percentage of the land had been '.eased to Europeans. The. quantity of i^nd co alienated was not sufficient to < au&e any uneasiness in^ any philo Maori if the large outlying waste were- looked at. In bis- opinion, tbe fact that a- certain area rl land had been leased was not a mutter for agitation, for those leases meant progress. It was the European lessee who was redeeming: the people from their life of sloth and making them hardworking people.

TOHUNGAS.

The tohunga appears to hold sway in the Cook Islands as well as in New Zealand. Colonel Gudgeon states: "The Tohunga is as dangerous to th<> well being of the people of the Cook Inlands as he has been in New Zealand for any time daring the last 50 years, and in either place he will not easily be suppressed; for the simple reason that the Maori has more faith in the tohunga than in the doctor. There are certain aspects of the Maori mind most difficult to deal "with. For instance, if the ftret dose of medicine does not effect an 'immediate cure, ifc in no good,, and he will have no more of it. Again, he . cannot see- that the food he is eating can have any connection with or effect on the malady from which he suffers, and therefore if his complaint be dysentery be will continue to eat taro or unripe mangoes, and his wife will neglect to cook Hijn proper food, because she cannot see the necessity for so. doing."