News from the Cooks

• The new Administration school — and a 10,000 gallon water tank fed from its roof —was completed in May on Mitiaro. A big job was involved in clear ing and levelling the land and laying out school grounds, planting grass and shade trees. e The vessel “Mahurangi” delivered two diving machines and 24 Manihiki divers to Suwarrow atoll in May. Licen ses have been granted to Mr. Dick Brown and Mr. Piri Moate to do some prelimin ary sampling of the lagoon for MOP. » A mooring and flying-boat tender launch for TEAL at Aitutaki was partly towed and proceeded partly under its own power from Rarotonga recently. It arrived safely at Aitutaki. » Great interest is being shown in Rarotonga in the recently opened Com munity Centre at Ngatangiia. Upwards of 150 people are regularly attending an English class and the Maori class for Europeans is also well attended. Regular talks by visitors and community leaders are & feature of the Centre. Not for a long time has the community spirit so manifested itself in Rarotonga where the old ways are all but dead. © To finance the sending of crippled children to New Zealand for treatment, entertainments and raffles have been held recently in Rarotonga. Costs involved are about £l5O per child and about 35 children are in need of treatment. No Government funds are allocated for this cause. ■'*'

• Rarotonga celebrated the Coronation of tHe Queen with a combined sports meeting at Muri, about 1,700 school children participating in over 200 events.

The day was the occasion of a general picnic at Muri by most of the population of the island.

O The Resident Commissioner’s tree planting programme to beautify the Rarotonga coastal road and to combat

erosion was advanced recently when on one day nearly 500 trees were planted by volunteers along the waterfront from Avarua to Avatiu wharves.

If Mrs. Aubrey Schindler, wife of the O.C. Aiyura Experimental Station in the Eastern NG High'l lands, was in Brisbane with her twJ young sons in July.