Cook Islanders

Warned Against NZ Attraction

(From Our New Zealand Correspondent ) A FORMER resident of the Cook Islands has suggested that there would be no difficulty in securing the services of 1,000 or more natives from that Group for vegetable cultivation and harvesting in New Zealand.

“They are very good at such work,” he says, “and I know that many of them would jump at such a chance.” The pro posal is that they should be employed in groups, with their own cooks, in such places as Pukekohe, near Auckland, where vegetables are grown for the city market.

In former years, a few Cook Islanders have come to New Zealand for a season of hop-picking and similar work.

It would be interesting, incidentally, to know just how many Cook Islanders there are now in employment in New Zealand. Rarotongans, in particular, have been attracted here of late by the abnormal labour conditions prevailing, a result, of course, of the war. New Zea land housewives are finding it increas ingly difficult to obtain domestic help, and it is in this avenue that most Cook Islanders are employed.

It seems that a system of indenture is already in operation. By this method prospective employers pay the passages of the natives to New Zealand, and so ensure that they will remain in their employ until the debt has been extin guished.

But whether this is really in the inter ests of the natives is, of course, another matter. Glowing reports from those who have gone on ahead have incited others to make the trip. So many Rarotongans, for example, have settled in Wellington that they are forming their own social club —despite the fact that, hitherto, many Islanders have been associated with the local social centre known as the Ngati-Poneke Club.

The majority of Rarotongans are ill fitted to live in New Zealand, and par ticularly in the cities. They feel the cold intensely: almost invariably they imme diately fall victims to epidemics such as measles or mumps. Almost all (unless they come here for educational purposes only) would be far better off in their own islands, rather than become domestic servants in another country.

In fact, the native population in Auck land has increased to such an extent that there is considerable apprehension, in particular, among well-wishers of the Maori people. It is estimated that Auck land now has between 3,500 and 4,000 people of at least part-Maori blood. The Pacific Islanders are now adding to this number. Already there is some evidence of racial discrimination, and the poorly educated are being pushed rapidly into the slum areas.

Cook Islanders should think very seri ously before they leave the conditions to which they are accustomed.

The Fiji Standing Committee on Finance recommended, in November, that £6OO should be provided for an anti mosquito campaign in certain districts of the Colony. Suva already has been pro vided for—it was reported in the Novem ber issue of the “PIM” how the Govern ment had declared war on Suva mosquitos and that inspectors were making house to-house calls to examine likely breeding places of the pests.