the Cooks

Notes Made Here and There in

By James P.

Shortall

k BRONZED giant of a man with \ a pleasant American accent stepped ashore from a TEAL Lrcraft at Aitutaki one day last [ay. “Banner’s the name,” he said.

Albert H. Banner of Honolulu — ere on a mission of absolutely and nphatically no commercial value hat-so-ever.”

In one hand he carried a pair of vimming flippers and a diving ask, and in the other a leather ise which proved to be full of astic specimen-containers. Work g for two-thirds of the year as a cturer at the University of Hawaii id for the other third on scientific fid work, Dr. Banner was there to illect specimens of the Snapping irimp—a tiny, non-edible creature lat inhabits holes in coral below ie waterline.

Financed by Yale University and ishop Museum, the project—one pure science—embraces the whole icific. This year he has been vering Polynesia. Together one iy we hiked via the war-time road, the highest point of the island, lere the Americans had a radar ation. Even the road, armpit gh with grass, vines and shrubs, is barely traceable.

Here and there we passed old concrete foundations and at the peak were glad enough to sit on the site of where the radar station once was, and enjoy the view below with the airstrip, now unused, away on our right, and right below, work proceeding in packing oranges on one of the citrus-scheme plots. More impressive, however, is the great area of good land that still lies idle.

Somewhere below us surveyors were then at work. One of their flags waved in the breeze alongside us. Any major scheme for develop ment of these islands calls for a greatly expanded Survey Depart ment and Land Court, as, at present practically the entire re sources of these two instrumentali ties are concentrated on keeping

ahead of the expansion plans of the Department of Agriculture’s re planting scheme.

At the present rate, it will take many years to complete the survey oi these Islands—even where the people are willing to permit a sur vey and title settlement to be made None of Mangaia Island, for example, has ever been surveyed for this latter reason.

Cooks, Too, Have

Tuna

In August PIM there was a photo graph of Aitutaki R.A., Rex Glad ney, with a line-up of some of the tuna he had been catching—thus proving that the Japs are not the only people in the Pacific catching these fish.

Every morning in May he was up at 2 or 3 am, and with a keen crew, down the half-mile reef channel and out to the open ocean in his launch.

Long-lines? No. Just the good

old trolling line with spinner—one selected from an enormous collec tion. The launch would cruise up and down at selected points off shore, and return by breakfast time —and if there were not at least a couple of 30 lb yellowfin aboard it had been a remarkably bad morn ing.

At about the same time, down at Rarotonga (a particular unflshy island, by the way) great hauls of tuna were being taken by the local fishermen—using deep-line methods —right off the main settlement. On one day, 60 tuna were taken there, 12 by one man alone. Those fish were selling at about 2/- per pound.

Tree-Climbing

Octopi?

Do octopi come ashore and climb pandanus palms to eat the flowers?

Many people in the Cooks believe that they do—but they also believe that this is a different kind of oc topus to the one that they catch on the reef for food purposes. Some say the tree-climbing one is a "de capod”—i.e., having ten legs or tentacles. (The Curator of Molluscs at the Australian Museum, Miss Joyce Allan, FRZS, was sceptical at the reports of tree-climbing "decapods.”

The only known ten-legged molluscs, she said, were squids (cuttle fish) which were completely helpless out of water. The octopus could move

very quickly on the beach for periods of up to three minutes, but had never been seen climbing trees.

The coconut crab, which in the darkness could be mistaken for an octopus, was, she thought, a feasible explanation for the re ports. Further reports, accompanied by photographs, would be wel comed by her, however).

Atiu Copra

Project

From the upper slopes of Atiu oi can clearly see uninhabited Talc tea Island. At present it is beii run as a sort of co-operative by tl Atiu people: The people ha formed a Takutea Committe elected from among the able-bodi(

ten, which administers the pro >eds of the copra sales. A gang ill decide to make the 16-mile boat ip across to prepare a load of >pra. When it is sold, half of the roceeds go to the committee’s akutea fund, and the other half shared equally by the men who d the job. The island’s share is >ed for the building of boats for ansport to the island and for other indry expenses connected with the ►pra industry. The Committee has 5 own boat. Several trips are made ich year. Under this financial rangement the men who actually > the work receive the cash. There a roster system, so all able-bodied en have a chance to participate.

Mother Airfield?

Someone drew me aside at Raro nga one day and said, “Have you ard about this Titikaveka air id?” I said I had not. Why build an rfield round there on the south le of the island, on some of the st agricultural land in the Cooks and what was wrong with the esent splendid airstrip which now is unused, and costs £4,000 per mum for upkeep?

My informant said he wouldn’t low —nevertheless in New Zealand, cently, he had been shown a map the island with a twin-strip air ild marked on it—right there at tikaveka; he was told that the rfield would handle four-engined mbers when completed.

[Gh Cost Of

Backcombing

Just what “a little grass shack in ilekehua, Hawaii” costs the nerican beachcomber to-day we ve not heard, but it must be mty.

Dn Rarotonga that accessory, lich according to the books was -merly thrown in with the Chief’s apely daughter, now costs 30/r 100 pieces of palm-leaf thatch l and a roof for even the most )dest shelter calls for about 800 ‘ces. Beachcombing is not what was.

Light In A

Gary World

Probably the only important un rtaking in the Group manned npletely by Cook Islanders is the rotonga TB sanatorium, of which MP Manea Tamarua is in com te charge, with his wife, a ined nurse, heading the nursing ff of Cook Islands girls. The latorium was extended in 1952 to ;ommodate up to 64 patients, but ; New Zealand Government has t yet provided the funds for extra fling, etc., and at present a ximum of 40 patients are being jommodated. (Over)

An Aitutaki family making arrowroot [?] primitive methods. A small export ade in this commodity is carried on from [?] e island.

Fhe medical department hopes to nmence a mass miniature X ping of the population in 1955 d no doubt all existing sana •ium accommodation will be taken by the cases then discovered.

FB is the principal killer in the oks —as in most Pacific islands — counting for 30 per cent, of all aths, and about 60 per cent, of

deaths in the 10-20-years-old age group. No organised anti-TB cam paign has yet been carried out.

The Rarotonga sanatorium, since its establishment on one of the most attractive sites on the island, overlooking the airfield and the northwest coast, has also, accident ally, provided a beacon-light for mariners of a greater usefulness

than any other official navigation light in the group.

First In Gets

The Prize

There is never any waiting for boats to handle cargo when the Maui Pomare approaches any of the outer island reef-passages. If she

[?] arotonga’s new £l8,000 gaol, built by local PWD from hollow cement blocks.

arrives in,,the very early hours, as she often does, boats will be out and alongside even before daylight The reason is that the cargo handling surfboats are each privately owned by a number of men in one, of the very few co-operative enterprises in the Group.

By general agreement, first boat alongsde receives first cargo—and that is important where a ship comes only once a month—and where there may be a comparatively few boat-loads to handle. First comer may receive two loads, the others one.

Best and keenest workers are per haps at Aitutaki where, as the ship steams in to the anchorage the boats come far out to meet her and the Maui’s passengers enjoy the fun as the individual boat crews struggle to be first alongside and fast to the ship while she still steams in at a fair speed.

Ashore an individual tally of cargo handled is kept for each boat, and when the job is done the Resi dent Agent makes the payout to the boat-captains. This competitive and co-operative spirit makes cargo handling easily the most efficient labour operation in the Cooks to day.

That £32,000 Steak!

“Why all the fuss about our freezer?” a Rarotonga resident in quired. “Surely we are as entitled

to our piece of fresh steak as the Public Servants back home.”

That looks like what the Ameri cans call a “loaded” question. “Back home” the piece of steak is pro vided by private enterprise. Here it is costing £32,000 of New Zealand public funds to establish the new public domestic freezer. It will serve

only one of the 15 islands of th group, and not many islanders, eve on Rarotonga, are able to pay 3 pound for rump steak, or even 2/ per pound for beef sausage although the prices are reasonable for European salaries.

Is a capital outlay of £32,0( really warranted for 350 Europear

nd possibly the same number of slanders?

There is another point, however; ?he freezer will provide, as a by iroduct, refrigeration for the 116,000 fruit cool-store, the con ract for which should be let this •pring.

Meanwhile the freezer is still ited by many Islanders as a diver ion of funds towards an essentially furopean facility. To prove that bis is so, it is pointed out that the Drmer ice delivery round the island as been dropped since the majority f European public servants have een provided with their own re •igerators. Now, with no ice de very, those who do not own re •igerators cannot keep fresh meat rer the week-end even where they in afford to buy it.

He Haves And

Aye Nots

Previously we mentioned the [alt Report and its Rarotonga ater supply master-plan. Reports aditionally are shelved for a year ' two before their advice is put ito effect —if ever. But many arotongans have another expana on as to why no urgency has been iken by the Administration in the .atter. “Just take a look round all le European Administration Duses,” one senior and respected ook Islander said. “You’ll notice lat they are all equipped with ex msive water filters which the dinary mortal could not afford.”

As an interim measure there ems to be no reason why these ,ters could not be fitted to the any public water taps round the land.

Usset Or Just

.Ain

The Department of Agriculture is recently changed its system of ading oranges as it affects pay ent to growers. The new gradings e now “Russet” and “Clean.”

The citrus rust mite, while not oiling the flavour of the fruit, ies very much spoil the appear ice, causing speckled brown, un jhtly patches all over the fruit.

In June an entomologist was due 3m New Zealand with a consign snt of flies from California, lown as Coniopterygidae, it is >ped that they will eventually suc ed in routing the mite.

S Cheaper Down

)Uth

One of the causes of the high st of living in the Cook Islands uld be unfair profiteering on the rt of the traders. The prices of few items there were noted and ;er compared with the prices on e same articles in Auckland, sre they are; pareu material, cot n-rayon, 7/- per yard at Raro

tonga-Auckland 111 to 2/6; cane knives, 17 6 as compared with 9/11; fish-hooks, 4d each as compared with Id for the same size; open aecked shirts, 25/- to 28/-, same shirt in Auckland 15/-; axes £3/10/-, Auckland £1 14 ; ukeleles, 38 - as compared with 27/-; a well-known brand of sweets, Id each as com pared with 3 for Id; corrugated iron, 32/- at one island—could be landed there at resellers’ price for 14 - sheet. All other prices are re tail prices.

Obviously traders could obtain these goods in Auckland at prices substantially below the prices men tioned—and that difference alone would cover the cost of freight up.

And in addition, the Cook Islands are exempt from the 20 per cent.

Sales Tax which is added to the re tail cost of a great, many items in New Zealand.

One trader on an outer island boasted that he had arrived there a couple of years ago with £6OO capital and was now clearing £l,OOO per year! Nice work! But it certainly is speeding the departure of the islanders for New Zealand and contributing to the sometimes well-founded discontenc.

Man With Three

Jobs

To visit Aitutaki is to visit John D. Harrington, one of the livest wires in the Cooks, an American ex serviceman who returned to make

island his business and his B. s store, home and beach-hotel a distinctly nautical flavour ,t them—and no wonder, for were largely built from the

ships Karoro and Alexander, which John promptly purchased from the insurance company as they ended their days on the off-shore reef.

Both these vessels formerly be longed to Mr. Lew Graham, of Auck

skilled MOP shell-carver at work in the Cook Islands’ only local hand-craft shop. It is owned by Mr. Ronald Powell. This man was cutting an Islands scene the back of a shell to make a lamp-shade similar to the one in the back-ground.

land and John jokingly remarked one day that he had a place re served on the reef for Mr. Graham’s latest acquisition, the Nukalau, still afloat at the time.

Well, he’s missed there, as she has since found her end in the Tasman Sea. What John could have bmlt from the wreckage of that ship, with her wooden hull and her cargo of hardwood poles! • Tke , built their hotel m self-defence. As TEAL agents, through passengers to Rarotonga look to John and Myra to accom modate them in the interim between ship and plane arrivals. With a lot of people passing through that can cease to be amusing.

So now the third of a little group of attractive pandanus-thatched, concrete-floored, fwo-berth cottages has just been completed and work is proceeding on a shower-and-toilet block nearby, to accommodate transients if they require accommo dation.

These guests eat with the family an s en i°y the cool, comfortable, well-furnished lounge in the house, with its wonderful view through the palms and out across the reef to where the sun sets in a blaze of glory on four days out of five.

Tourists are not encouraged—but they are certainly well looked after when they do put in.

That is John D.. the Hotel Pro prietor. There is also John D. the storeeeper on six days of the week.

But in addition there is John D

i lF ol^??. ny Agent— apart from being the TEAL Agent.

The day before the TEAL Solent hnnnS 8 *5? from Samoa, TahiU

frnmdf>.ohere - 6neral OXOdUS

mam lsland - and Akaiami islet, an hour’s run across the lagoon f?Su gS v. 0 1 ? e - John with staff and head off right after lunch * he TEAL and launches! nf i 0 S A a T S a great B Prmg cleaning of the TEAL reception building pro ceeds, the party is joined by Resident Agent Gladney and his staff, with the outward Cook

Islands mail, and CAA boss P Dixon with staff and family supervise landing operations radio communications at the isle me cooks get busy nrpna of° a a <;n d - eVenin S ls SOmetl or a social occasion. But at aShn ° f A T is. aiami comes to again Peter Dixon is off lik hare to a little grass shack wl ?oi£o 10 ta Ji on 18 concealed, talks with the main radio stai across the lagoon at the airl and .announces the aircraft’s El There is a great preparation

breakfast—and of refreshments for the passengers, all beautifully laid out within and on the verandah of the big thatch-roofed house. The CAA launch, also equipped with radio, is off to patrol the landing area, and the gasoline barges are readied.

Then in comes the big Solent. In on time the passengers are ashore and for an hour the little islet is like some famous resort—then away they go, the mess is cleared up, the barges beached, doors locked, and Akaiami abandoned to ‘Brownie” —the permanent care taker, and a couple of Islanders— antil next flight comes through.

John D. has an interesting, if msy, life.

_Ocal Time

Signal

Enjoying a long cool drink at the lome of Peter Dixon, manager of he airport, the telephone gave a Dng sustained ring and the locals iresent glanced at their wrist batches. The duty operator at the eradio station gives this time signal t 7 a.m., 10 a.m., noon, 3 p.m. and p.m. daily.

A.Nguage No

!AR There was a discussion going on t John Harrington’s one evening Jgarding his young children who bviously understand English but mnot speak more than a word or vo of it yet—as they have been ired for by Aitutaki women.

Then someone recalled the case of former European resident of the ooks who married a local girl. He >uld not speak a word of her nguage, nor she a word of his— it they managed to rear a size )le family and lived together in implete harmony!

Igh Cost Of

[Otoring

Motorists require a separate driv- S license for each island of the )ok Group; they are priced 5/ch. However, with roads as they e—lacking quantity and quality, i islands other than Rarotonga— id petrol priced at 7/6 and up, r gallon, there is no great en uragement towards a motoring ur of the group.

The Trade Commissioner for dia, Mr. Patel, in an extensive ur of Papua and New Guinea, has sited all the principal centres, and own a keen interest in the estab hed industries. Mr. Patel leaves is month by Messageries Mari nes liner to visit New Caledonia ;w Hebrides and French Oceania id, on his way back to Sydney, he n spend several days in Fiji