No Shipping, No Cold Store— No Progress

NZ Presents Cook Islands Report for 1952

A marked increase in national in come due to greatly expanded fruit exports to New Zealand was the outstanding feature of the 1952 trade report on the Cook Islands. Revenue rose from £157,000 in the previous year to £226,000 in 1952, citrus fruit accounting for £70,000 and tomatoes and pineapples together yielding a further £54,000.

MOP shell which has been a val uable export since the war, declined slightly, both quantity and price falling (from 459 tons and £115,000 in 1951 to 301 tons and £70,000).

Average prices for the two years were £250 and £232 per ton respec tively. MOP shell continues to be the Territory’s only dollar earner.

Copra accounted for £87,000, pro ceeds rising by £15,000 due to an in crease in price under the 1949 9-year contract with British Ministry of Food, though the quantity of copra shipped 1,336 tons, was only 16 tons greater than in 1951.

Subsidies and grants from the New Zealand Government rose In proportion to the rise in income, amounting to £276,000 as compared to £lBl,OOO in 1951. Expenditure on health, education and public works rose last year by £9,000.

The only secondary industries in

the Group one boot factory and two clothing factories, suffered a slump, many of the 170-odd em ployees having to be laid off.

Though costs will rise as public

facilities continue to be extended,, especially on Rarotonga, given satis factory shipping connections thei proceeds from exports of citrusi should substantially increase year by year as the planned plantings of: recent years come into bearing- Though serious efforts to extendi the pearling beds to Rakahanga,, Puka Puka and Suwarrow might:

veil be worth the small costs in volved, agriculture is the main hope f or the Group, and, as always, in he Cooks, that is completely de jendent upon satisfactory ship )ing connections and cool-store ac :ommodation, present weakest link n the Cook Island economy.

Though a grant has been made or a cool store at Avarua, Raro onga, since the annual report under eview was compiled, there has been ittle progress with the project irhich has been at the talking stage or 20 years or more.

Titles To Land

Good progress, the report indi ates, is being made by the native md court m settling titles to land, he main work during last year eing done on Mauke to facilitate he replanting scheme. Work of the ourt has been retarded by a short ge of survey staff in the Lands lepartment.

About 1,000 acres of land is now lanted with citrus in the Cooks, 72 acres having been established ince the 1945 scheme came into peration. Under the Replanting cheme, about £95,000 has now been laned to growers, in the form of •ees, fertilisers, etc. Loans are paid Ef by a deduction from the pro jeds of the sale of fruit, the deduc on being raised last year by unani mous vote of the Legislative ssembly from two-thirds to three larters of the proceeds.

The measure of increased pros jrity in the Cooks is shown by the ost Office Bank savings. The amber of Maori depositors rose by )0 and the amount banked by ',OOO. The number of Maori de bitors has risen year by year since ie war from 4,700 to 6,400, and the im from £60,000 to £79,000.

3Nrhyn Airstrip Paid For

The report shows that the long itstanding claims by the people of mrhyn in respect of the war time rstrip that was built there, was lally settled during the year, some 1,000 being paid to individuals as mpensation for palms cut down id for rent of the land taken up r the now abandoned airstrip, ’he late James Norman Hall wrote novel based on war time invasion Penrhynj.

Other points from the report: The unber of Cook Islanders employed the French phosphate island of akatea rose from 239 to 255; a restry scheme was commenced on iu with a view to producing timber iteble for fruit cases; educational cilities for children, and adult ucation schemes were extended; ictric power and telephone facili -5S on Rarotonga were expanded; i and pneumonia continued to count for by far the greatest mber of deaths in the Territory, ough sanitonum accommodation s expanded on Rarotonga; a com ;te leper survey revealed 45 active ses.

Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Bateson and Miss Bateson were in Auckland on vacation from Rarotonga in early November. Mr. Bateson, in addition to being Manager in the Cook Islands for A. B. Donald & Co., is also a noted astronomer whose work on variable stars has appeared in scientific journals in many parts of the world.

H Miss Anne Passey, an attractive 20-years-old schoolteacher from NSW, was the only passenger aboard MV Muliama when it left Sydney in November for the British Solomon Islands. Miss Passey will marry Mr.

Rex Campbell, Lever Bros, planta tion inspector at Lingatu, in the Russell Islands, on December 12.