THE COOK ISLANDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3662, 20 May 1924, Page 69

THE COOK ISLANDS.

CHIEF POST OFFICE ESTABLISHED. WELLINGTON, May 13. The Minister for the Cook Islands (Sir Maui Pomare) has received the following wireless message from the Resident Commissioner of the Cook Islands:—“The post office at Rarotonga has been created a chief post office from to-day.” Although this is a short and simple message, it nevertheless marks a very interesting and important development in the administration of affairs in the Cook group. Hitherto for all postal and savings bank purposes Rarotonga has been regarded as a sub-district office, and was attached to and worked from the chief post office at Auckland. While this system was quite convenient from the noint of view of ordinary postal business, it has not been so in connection with savings bank matters. Not only Rarotonga, but all the other islands in the group, to name a few, Aitutaki, JVJangaia, Mauke, Atiu, Penrhyn, and Manihiki, have had a 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 pay in 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. To enable the change over to be made smoothly and expeditiously, the Post and Telegraph Department loaned 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 the four years in which the Post Office Savings Bank has been in operation in Western Samoa no less a sum than £40,000 has "been placed to the credit of depositors. The experiment in 192 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 a spirit of thrift amongst the people of Samoa which was hitherto never suspected. So successful has been the post office at Apia that the administration has recently -oened branches at Alieapata, in \ the extreme eastern end of the island of Upolu. and at Fagamalo, an island of Savaii. to give greater facilities to the Samoan people for investing their savings. It is fully expected from the experience in Samoa that, the granting of full savings hank facilities to the people of tho Cook Islands will result in a similar substantial increase in the Post Office Savings Rank there. In addition, these fuller facilities will do much to assist trade and commerce both within and outside the g-roup.