Cook Island Notes

From Our Own Correspondent.

Rarotonga, July 14.

AMONG the recipients of the King’s Birthday Honours is Karika Takau Ariki Vaine, to Majesty has been pleased to award the O.B.E. Karika Ariki is the sole surviving signatory to the original Treaty of Annexation, by which these Islands came into the possession of New Zealand in 1900. Herself head of a family long distinguished in local annals, she is a kinswoman of the late Makea Takau Ariki, last inde pendent sovereign, and remembered to this day as the "Queen Victoria of the Cook Islands.”

For 38 years a resident of Rarotonga, Mr. Percy S. Shearman leaves us to strike out afresh for himself in New Zealand. Volunteering early dur ing the Great War, he accompanied the Rarotongan Contingent of the N.Z. Pioneer Batt. to France, Palestine and Egypt, acting, in addition to his regimental duties, as interpreter for the native troops. Returning to the Islands he became a partner in the trading firm of Bonar & Shearman, concerning himself principally with the fruit-buying side of the business. Mr. Shearman’s only son is at school in N.Z. and it is largely in the inter ests of the boy’s future that he is now leaving.

All good wishes go with him in what, at best, must be a difficult task in these precarious times.

On June 15, social Rarotonga met on the lawns of the Bowling Club for the official opening of the Club season. Upwards of a hundred members and visitors were present, the ladies of the Club providing a very excellent afternoon tea. Bowls are becoming increasingly popular here and the Club, formed in 1930, owes much of its present success to the early work and enthusiasm of Mr.

Dave Brown, leading local player.

Arrivals And Departures.

Two distinguished visitors, General Post and General Exodus, have been at work here lately and Change has been the order of the day among members of the commercial fraternity. In A. B Donald & Co., Mr. Sam Bennett has replaced

Mr. E. H. Townsend as manager, and the places of Messrs. Hill and Ulfsby are now occupied by Mr. Morel and Mr. Duck, the latter being pre viously in the employ of the Cook Island Trading Co. Incoming to the last mentioned firm are Messrs. Cunningham, Snow and Cooper; outgoing Messrs. Ainger, Duck and Webb. Our two native companies, the R.F.C. and C.I.N.A., both retrenching, have been compelled to part with Accountant Ford and Store-Manager Dave Brown respectively.

A New Store.

Another—and more cheerful—aspect of affairs is shown by the recent opening of Messrs. W. H.

Grove and Son’s new premises on the Avarua waterfront. The building, a handsomely-fitted wood and iron general store, has been erected en tirely by local labour under the direction of Mr.

Karl Olsen, at a cost of slightly over £1200. In 1932, before our prison discipline was tautened up, a prisoner broke jail and entering Messrs. Groves’ old premises at night, set fire to the building, in an attempt to cover evidence of his visit. Estab lished here over 30 years, the firm is well known in Tonga, Fiji and Tahiti as wholesalers and agents. A novel feature of the new store, which is under the management of Mr. H. R. Harris, is the show-room effect given by one of the latest model British-built Ford saloons, for which the firm is the local concessionaire.

Captain J. B. Munns, who died in Syd ney on August 7, aged 80 years, served on shipping routes from New Zealand to Australia, and to Fiji and Samoa, for 55 years.