A.—3

1926. NEW ZEALAND.

COOK AND OTHER ISLANDS. [In continuation of Parliamentary Paper A.-3, 1925.]

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Command of His Excellency.

MEMORANDUM. Cook Islands Department, Wellington, Bth June, 1926. I submit the attached annual reports of the Cook Islands and Niue Administrations. This is the fourteenth consecutive occasion on which I have done so since assuming the office of Minister for the Cook and other Islands ; and, having just completed a tour which covered both the Lower and Northern Groups, I can affirm with the utmost conviction that to-day these Polynesian peoples are healthy, increasing in numbers, happy and prosperous, thoroughly content with their administration, warmly appreciative of the care and good will of their guardian, New Zealand, and intensely loyal to His Majesty the King. As will be seen from the returns which follow, the volume of trade, which in the preceding year constituted a record for the Cook Group, has been well maintained. A much greater increase may be confidently looked for when a suitable steamer is provided to transport the valuable and prolific citrus-fruit crops of these islands to the markets of the Dominion. The trade of Niue shows a considerable improvement as compared with the preceding twelve months, and this satisfactory result is entirely due to the fact that a regular service was provided by the Department's steamer " Hinemoa." This historic vessel has now entered upon a further career of the utmost value and usefulness to the Dominion. Already she has more than justified the' cost of reconditioning and putting her into commission, for besides maintaining and assuring in the future a regular and quick connection between New Zealand and Niue, she has been the means of reopening trade with Norfolk Island, and of conveying the leper patients of New Zealand, Samoa, Niue, and the Cook Group to the Fiji Leper Hospital at Makogai. The " Hinemoa " has also carried out towing operations for the Samoan Administration and the Public Works Department, at an appreciable saving to the Consolidated Fund. Our several outer wireless stations are being most efficiently maintained and operated by their Native staffs. During the year the Atiu station was equipped with a transmitter, and is therefore now sending as well as receiving. The Rarotonga main station is all ready to change over to lowwave transmission so soon as New Zealand is equipped to receive on this system. The alteration is anxiously awaited, as it will enable Rarotonga Radio to communicate direct with Wellington Radio, thus eliminating the crippling relay charges which all messages have to carry at present. It is the intention of the Administration to install wireless sets in each of the principal islands of the Northern Cook Group immediately the necessary Native operators have been trained to take charge of them. Suitable lads are now being selected for training. I hope soon, therefore, to end the long and oftentimes dangerous isolation of these remote atolls. The urgency of the need for bringing these islands into wireless touch with the outside world was again dramatically brought home to me on the arrival of the " Hinemoa " at Palmerston Island on the 13th May, during her recent leper cruise. I found the island completely devastated as the result of a great storm and tidal wave which swept over the atoll —during the daylight hours, fortunately —on the 31st March, and which left 105 men, women, and children homeless and foodless except for fallen coconuts and such fish as they could catch in the lagoon. Had the disaster occurred in the dark of night there would have been much loss of life and many maimed and broken bodies. May I add that, notwithstanding their wretched plight, I was greeted on landing by a smiling, cheerful, and happy people, who had no complaints or requests to make. I have in these annual reports for years past expressed my great dissatisfaction with the type of steamer provided for fruit transport during the Cook Islands orange season. I regret that lam still unable to report any improvement. On the contrary, the steamer engaged in this trade at the

I—A. 3.