To The Cook Is.
p. 60 · Read in the full issue
Makea Family Service
Make a nui teremoana ARIKI, of Rarotonga, who was awarded the CBE in the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours List, is the third Cook Islander on whom a British Civilian Order has been bestowed.
The first recipient was the present Ariki’s father, Makea Nui Tinirau Ariki, who was awarded the OBE in 1934. Lord Bledisloe, then Governor-General of New Zealand, made the presen tation at the Waitangi (New Zealand) celebrations.
The second award took place in 1935 when Judge Ayson, then Resident Commissioner for the Cook Islands, presented Makea Karika Takau Ariki with the award of Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire on behalf of the Governor of New Zealand.
The Makea family were the rulers of the Cook Group before they were claimed for Queen Victoria by Captain Bourke, RN, on October 27, 1888.
Makea Takau Ariki, of Rarotonga, was then the Cook Islands ruling Queen and three years previously had visited Auckland with the unanimous request of her people
that the Cook Islands become a British Protectorate. In 1900, His Excellency the Earl of Ranfurly, then Governor of New Zealand, formally annexed the Cook Group for New Zealand. —W.H.P.
II Mr. Don Reid, of I s 1 a nr Territories Department, Wellington who has lately been attached South Pacific Commissioner Hea«, quarters, Noumea, returned Wellington in July.