Islands' "Doomsday
p. 17 · Read in the full issue
Book"
ONE of the most cherished possessions of Lady Pomare (whose husband was for so many years Minister in charge of the Cook Islands) is what she calls “the Doomsday Book.”
This volume of signatures, which took more than two years to complete, was handed to the late Sir Maui Pomare as he passed through Rarotonga en route to the United States in 1930. He did not see it again, as he died soon after his arrival in California. The book was taken round all the islands in the Group, and it now forms a most important his torical record pertaining to the Cook Islands. Many of the Islanders who could not write appended crosses, in lieu of signatures.
It will be a cherished heirloom in the family of Sir Maui’s son, Te Rakahaerea Pomare —who, by the way, has a son, aged two years, also called Maui. Ana, his sister (now Mrs . Te Rangihaeta, another name famous in New Zealand history) is a chieftainess of Rarotonga, having been adopted by the late Makea ariki-nui Tinirau. The Pomare family possess other gifts as evidence of Sir Maui’s association with the Cook Islands and Samoa. —E.R.