PACIFIC DEPENDENCIES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 77, Issue 6985, 3 November 1948, Page 3

PACIFIC DEPENDENCIES

NEW ZEALAND’S MORAI RESPONSIBILITY

DEVELOPMENT OF ISLANDS AGRICULTURE

A comprehensive report on the agriculture of Samoa, Cook Islands, and Fiji, was recently presented to the Board of Governors of Massey Agricultural College, Palmerston North, by the principal, Professor GS. Peren, who visited the islands on a tour of inspection late last year. Professor Peren’s observations on the agricultural development of New Zealand’s Pacific dependencies are contained in a booklet recently issued by the college. “Looking at the overall picture, I think that one should visualise these tropical islands as a province of New Zealand, systematically tied into our agricultural economy, and developed so as to produce, firstly for the Dominion, those products which we need for our sustenance, just as much as the products of temperate New Zealand,” comments Professor Peren. “Dissatisfaction is likely to arise, and I think with real justification, unless steps are taken to put the economy of these people on a sound footing.” Of Western Samoa, the professor states: “These islands are going ahead; the population has nearly doubled since 1921 and the national income is steadily increasing. Given a better shipping service and a suitable agricultural technical service, together with the incentive of reliable markets at reasonable prices, Samoa may be expected to expand her production.” The. Cook Islands, formally annexed by New Zealand in 1901, present the Dominion with a moral responsibility which carries with it a difficult problem, says the professor. The native form of self-government and organisation of food production has broken down, and the population has been led more and more to adopt European ways and to regard the European standard of living as the ideal. An economy has been developed which necessitates an income from export trade. At the same time, inter-island wars have been put down, so that there is no loss of population from this cause, and a medical service has been developed which hrfs reduced infant mortality and improved the health of the people. The population is, therefore, increasing steadily, and it is clear that steps will have to be taken adequately to provide these people with a satisfactory livelihood, or a grave state of affairs is bound to arise. Education, the motion pictures, and I contact with 1 New Zealand, tend to make the more lintjelligent of the natives still more dissatisfied with the existing state of affairs, and one was told that the aim of the up-and-coming youngster is to get a job in Auckland, where he imagines there is more scope for him.