NZ Reporter Lifts The Lid
pp. 61-71 · Read in the full issue
Off The Cook Islands Stew
In normal times, the 18 scattered atolls and islands that make up the New Zealand-administered Cook Group seldom merit more than three or four columns of news space in NZ newspapers in the course of a month.
BUT times have not been normal lately—not since the Auckland Star sent reporter Noel Holmes to the Cook Islands to write the first ob jective report on the territory since another Star reporter, Antony Alpers, did the same thing about seven years ago. (PIM, Nov., 1957, p. 107).
Beginning on May 30, Holmes pub lished a series of 12 “state of the nation” articles which really lifted the lid off New Zealand’s administra tion of the territory.
The articles brought a point-for point reply from the Minister in charge of the Cooks, Sir Leon Gotz, that occupied almost as much space as the articles.
Holmes’ main conclusion was that, despite a subsidy from NZ of £750,000 a year, the Cook Islanders were so badly off economically that a parliamentary fact-finding commit tee should be sent to the group at once to see how matters could be improved.
The gist of Sir Leon Gotz’s reply was that Holmes had painted a dis torted and rather gloomy picture of conditions in the group and that a fact-finding committee was un necessary.
To this Holmes replied that it would be more accurate to say that he had painted a picture that the Minister did not want to see.
Angry Despair
Holmes’ series of articles began with the charge that, despite appear ances, many Cook Islanders were on the verge of angry despair.
The reason for this was that too many of them were flat broke—so much so that they could see no sign of ever being able to make ends meet.
Worse still, a “significant section” of the islanders were deeply and hopelessly in debt to the New Zea land Government and people, who had committed them to expenditure over which they had no control, debiting them with 5 per cent, in terest, which not one in 20 of them understood.
The people in debt, Holmes said, were citrus growers on Rarotonga,
Aitutaki, Mauke and Atiu who were involved in the Government’s citrus replanting scheme.
This scheme, begun in 1939 and modified in 1945, provided for the Government to plant and maintain growers’ plots, debiting the growers with the cost of labour and materials and charging interest on the debts.
To get the debts paid off quickly, repayments were fixed at two-thirds of the cash return for the crop—i.e. 10/- to the Government if the grower got 15/- for a case of fruit.
Further Into Debt However, on Atiu and Mauke, the cost of producing a case of fruit had been higher than the market price for the fruit, so that growers got fur ther into debt with every case they produced.
As a result, all 279 growers on Atiu and Mauke were still in debt; while on Aitutaki, 190 out of 201 were in debt, and on Rarotonga, 115, out of 214 were in debt.
The total debt amounted to £177,000, on which the NZ Treasury had been collecting 5 per cent, in terest. This had recently been reduced to 1 per cent.
Holmes said that the citrus scheme had been a failure for four reasons.
Plots were too small for economic working, the type of trees planted had not been a happy choice, nobody had anticipated that the scheme would be so costly to run, and no thought had apparently been given to whether all the fruit produced could be marketed.
However, Holmes suggested that the scheme would be helped along if
New Zealand's Minister of Island Territories, Sir Leon Gotz.
Fruit Distributors Ltd., the NZ organ isation which markets Cook Islands fruit under charter to the Govern ment, was replaced by one with a strong growers’ representation, with the first duty of ensuring that all pos sible fruit was disposed of in NZ.
He also thought that growers should be given a 49 per cent, interest in Island Foods Ltd., a NZ company (Greggs, of Dunedin) which has suc cessfully operated a juicing plant and cannery on Rarotonga since 1961 and which is expected to take 120,000 cases of citrus fruit this year. (This company pays growers less for their fruit than they get on the export mar ket.) Debt "Should Be Cancelled"
Holmes added that as NZ tax payers would never again see the money they had put into the citrus scheme, the debt owed by growers should be cancelled without qualifica tions.
Turning to other crops, Holmes said that before Cook Islanders were encouraged to cultivate such things as coffee, peanuts, pepper and spices, they should be given a written guarantee that their harvests would be accepted and paid for at fair world prices.
As for copra, he suggested the set ting up of copra boards on the nor thern atolls to make sales through a central board on Rarotonga, thus eliminating the loss of profits to middle-men. He said the adoption of modern methods should also be en couraged and the making of coconut oil considered.
On bananas, Holmes said that an inquiry should be made into the economics of exporting bananas in the hand or bunch.
Holmes also suggested that: • Rarotongans should be given a vote on the vexed question of allow ing Japanese tuna fishermen to land on Rarotonga with catches of tuna for canning, as many people there had fears about undesirable repercus sions resulting from such an arrange ment. • Efforts should be made to deve lop tourism in the group. • Because of the poor shipping services in the Group, the possibility of developing an internal air service should be investigated.
Holmes said that if air strips had been built—as the late Prime Minis ter Peter Fraser had wanted to do years ago—instead of spending money on relatively unsuccessful reef blasting, many of the problems of the
group, particularly those concerning the perishability of fruit, would have disappeared by now.
Holmes said there was one aspect of NZ’s administration that could not be criticised. This was its willingness —in fact, its determination—to give the Cook Islanders independence as quickly as possible.
However, some Cook Islanders were a little bewildered at having re sponsibility thrust on them so sud denly, and many were having second thoughts about their decision last year to take over their own affairs.
“We can well afford to make haste slowly, allowing the Cook Islanders to take over only when they feel like doing so,” Holmes said.
Holmes said that NZ had done good things in the Cook Islands, especially in the fields of health, edu cation and housing, and that where he had no criticism he was full of praise.
Well-Meaning Bumbling
He added that he had a high re gard for those administering NZ’s Island territories; that Sir Leon Gotz undoubtedly had a more intimate knowledge of the Pacific and its prob lems than any of his predecessors; that the Resident Commissioner, Mr.
“Oily” Dare, and his Administration officers could not have been more helpful; and that many of them went out of their way to point out past mistakes and steps that might be taken to improve matters.
“It can be said quite truthfully,”
Holmes added, “that if we have bumbled in the past, it has been well meaning bumbling; if we have suf fered from a lack of continuity of policy, it has been the system at fault rather than the people involved.
“I imagine that some controversy
might follow these articles. This is to be welcomed for, as was the case in 1957, nothing but good can come of a public examination of our record in the Islands.”
In his reply, Sir Leon Gotz agreed that nothing but good could come from Holmes’ public examination of the record, but he said that Holmes had over-emphasised many of the shortcomings and had made some errors of judgment.
On Holmes’ charge that “too many islanders are broke,” Sir Leon said: “I have seldom met an Islander who felt that he wasn’t.
“For all that, I don’t intend to dis pute this point, except to say that the efforts over the past years to im prove housing and health conditions, to diversify crops and teach improved methods of cultivation, to explore new outlets for locally-grown crops and to encourage secondary industry into the group have been directed at rectifying this situation. It cannot be done over night.”
To refute Holmes’ statement that Cook Islanders had no hope of being anything else but broke, Sir Leon quoted export figures for the past three years. He said that exports
Mr. A. O. Dare, Resident Commissioner in the Cook Islands.
rose from £464,000 in 1960 to £598,000 in 1961, and to over £710,500 last year.
“These figures represented an in crease of 28.8 per cent, in 1961 and 18.8 per cent, in 1962, and I doubt whether any country could show such spectacular results in its efforts to raise production and put more cash in the pockets of the people,” Sir Leon said.
“To anticipate any possible criti cism that I am painting a rosy picture to justify my administration of the portfolio of Island Territories, let me quote some interesting facts from 15 years ago.
“They reveal that average export receipts in the Cook Islands rose from £256,000 during the period 1945-52, to £435,000 during 1953-57 and to £535,500 in 1958-62.
“I would agree that there is room for still further improvement, but if too many Islanders are ‘flat broke’ now. 1 fail to see how they survived at all 15 years ago.”
Sir Leon Gotz said that Holmes’ suggestion that a Parliamentary fact finding committee should be sent to the Cooks was “completely unneces sary” and would be a waste of public money. He added wryly: “The last Parliamentary committee resulted in the citrus replanting scheme, which is so much criticised by Mr. Holmes.”
However, Sir Leon said that the citrus scheme should not be judged as a failure without considering it “in its proper perspective as the major contributor to the economy of the Cook Islands”.
No Incentive “Without this scheme,” Sir Leon said, “there would be no canning fac tory and, therefore, no incentive to embark on a major pineapple replant ing venture, or to harvest other pro ducts such as passionfruit and pa paws; there would be less opportunity for employment, less earnings from inter-island freights on citrus fruit, and less revenue from taxation and other sources for the Legislative As sembly.
“I agree that the position of growers on two of the four citrus producing islands is not happy. But the fact that, at the end of last sea son, 99 growers on Rarotonga and 11 on Aitutaki had fully cleared their debts, speaks for itself.
“The number of debt-free growers is steadily rising year by year as pro duction continues to increase.”
Sir Leon said that the reduction of interest rates on growers’ loans from 5 to 1 per cent, and the aboli tion of interest on loans made to the Fruit Control Scheme had given im
mediate relief, particularly to growers whose indebtedness was high.
More important, a decision to re duce the rate of debt repayment from two-thirds to one-half of the proceeds from the sale of fruit had imme diately put more cash into the pockets of growers on the three islands now supplying their entire crop to the canning factory.
Sir Leon added: “In spite of this, however, I readily concede that some other means of assistance should be looked into.
“At the same time I cannot agree that all debts should be written off.
“The key to the continuing suc cess of the citrus replanting scheme lies in increased production.
“Unless individual producers are prepared to make the necessary effort to raise production to an economic
level, they will always be in financial trouble, no matter what other con cessions are granted in the future.”
Sir Leon Gotz said that he did not think that the charter of Fruit Distri butors Ltd. should be revoked, as, in his opinion, it had “done a very good job in promoting the sale of citrus produced in the Cook Islands at the best price obtainable.” However, it was unfortunate that Cook Islands citrus, through no fault of its own, did not appeal to every palate in NZ.
Sir Leon agreed that Holmes had made a good point in suggesting that growers should have an interest in the Gregg cannery, but he thought the company should be given time to find its feet before this issue was taken further.
Sir Leon said that Holmes’ sugges tion that Cook Islands growers should be given written guarantees that their harvests would be accepted and paid for at fair world prices was “com pletely impracticable”.
Copra Boards Necessary
But he agreed that the setting up of copra boards was necessary to ex ploit the available potential through out the group, and he said this matter was being actively considered by the Cook Islands Legislative Assembly.
Referring to the proposal to can Japanese-caught tuna, Sir Leon said: “The possibility of a tuna-canning in dustry is certainly a live issue in the Cook Islands.
“On my recent visit I made it quite clear that when negotiations between Greggs and the Japanese interests concerned had been concluded, the full proposals would be presented to the Legislative Assembly for consid eration and final approval.
“The fears held in Rarotonga that, by intermarriage, the Japanese might acquire land rights is, of course, quite ridiculous, as, unlike under New Zea land law, it is not possible in the Cook Islands for land to become owned by persons other than Cook Islanders or the Crown.
“Without going further into the pros and cons of the proposal, the de cision whether or not to allow the establishment of a local tuna-canning industry will be decided by the elected representatives of the people of the Cook Islands, and nobody else.
Private Enterprise
On tourism. Sir Leon said; “Let Rarotonga have a tourist industry by all means, but surely it is up to private enterprise to encourage and develop this theme.”
Referring to transport, Sir Leon said: “Possibly internal (air) services will come in time, but let’s concentrate on other priority development problems first.
“I readily agree that the general condition of inter-island shipping leaves much to be desired, and it was for this reason the NZ Government introduced a subsidy scheme years ago to induce local owners to raise standards.
This scheme has been taken up by the Assembly under the new financial arrangements and the three licences offered by the Assembly were eagerly taken up. This augers well for the future and we hope very soon to
see at least two ‘classed’ ships in operation.”
On self-government, Sir Leon said: “Political development must go hand in hand with economic, social and cultural development, and for that reason NZ has submitted to the As sembly a plan of constitutional steps which could be taken to lead the people to full internal self-govern ment.
“There is no intention to bustle them into accepting a programme for the future. On the contrary, the mem bers of the Cook Islands Legislative Assembly have been asked to give full and careful consideration to the suggested timetable and then to de
cide for themselves what their poli tical future is to be.
“If they have any reservations about the political development plan, their wishes will be observed.”
No Proof In reply to Sir Leon’s reply to his series of articles, Holmes said that the Minister had produced no proof that he had painted a distorted pic ture of Cook Islands conditions. Sir Leon’s figures showing that exports had increased since the war did not prove that the islanders were better off.
“We might just as easily note that the subsidy from NZ was £ 18,000-odd immediately after the war and today it has grown to something like £750,000,” Holmes said.
“That is, while exports have merely trebled themselves, the subsidy has been multiplied 40-odd times—from which we might deduce that the Cook Islanders are spectacular losers in the struggle for financial independence.”
Holmes added that Dr. R. G. Cro combe, of the School of Pacific Studies, Australian University, had asserted in a recent paper that the per capita income from Cook Islands exports, corrected to values of the day, was actually less now than it was in 1924-28.
Holmes reiterated his suggestion that Rarotonga should have the final vote on whether Japanese tuna fisher men should be allowed into Raro tonga, as elected representatives of (say) Penrhyn or Mauke were not deeply concerned about the matter.
Summing up, Holmes said: “No matter how hard we have tried, we have been unable to make the islands self-supporting, while maintaining for the people a reasonable standard of living.
“Nor has anybody been able to suggest any way of making the islands self-supporting. All the indica tions are that we will have to sub sidise the territories for ever.”
Women working in the citrus-packing shed at Avarua, Rarotonga.