Cook Islands' Mad
p. 45 · Read in the full issue
No More
Cook Islands' Mad Cracker Craze Ended
RAROTONGA’S Island Council passed an ordinance, January 14, making it illegal to import any type of fireworks into Raro tonga.
The ordinance received the im mediate assent of the Resident Commissioner, Mr. G. Nevill, on be half of New Zealand’s Governor- General, and promises some relief to more sober citizens who, for the last couple of months, have been driven to despair by the fireworks craze.
Noisy fireworks have been ex ploded at all hours of the day and night in Rarotonga. Young adults were worse offenders than children and experimented with the “bang ers” in dangerous and sometimes ingenious ways.
A common practice was to ex plode the fireworks in hollow bam boos, or bottles, and some accidents resulted from flying glass. A young man at Muri emptied the gun powder from several fireworks into a bottle, incorporated a fuse, and made the “bomb” watertight by using candle grease. He then took his “bombs” to the lagoon and re turned with a good haul of fish.
When a musical programme was being rehearsed in Radio Raro tonga’s studio the noise from fire works being exploded outside halted the proceedings. The offenders were told to desist, but even so a couple of loud reports were heard on a recording broadcast on the evening of January 9.
Throwing lighted “bangers” under the wheels of passing traffic was another popular pastime, and an outer island school was destroyed when a cracker set fire to the roof.
A steady stream of complaints about the misuse of fireworks was experienced throughout the island groups of the South Pacific, and a number of serious fires were traced to this cause. (Noisy fireworks were recently banned in Fjii).
Under the new ordinance, Cook Islands traders are allowed to sell out their present stock of fire works.
Two Maori firms stated that they sold about £250- worth each, and in Rarotonga alone it is estimated that upwards of £l,OOO has been spent on crackers since November—this on an island where the majority of people are so poor that they have to live in makeshift shacks—W.H.P.