Rarotonga airport:
p. 37 · Read in the full issue
much to be done before work begins
The agreement between the Cook Islands and New Zealand
to build a $6 million-plus jet
airport at Rarotonga has at last been signed, and tenders will be let in March.
The signing, in February, came after months of haggling over clause nine in the agreement which gives NZ the right to say who will be allowed to fly in and out of the Cooks. Mr. Albert Henry, Premier of the Cooks, objected most strongly to this clause, saying that Cook Islanders must be allowed to decide for themselves who would be allowed to fly to their islands.
As it has turned out, however, clause nine stands, NZ will decide who can run air services to the Cooks—after “consulting” with the Cook Islands Government.
The airport is expected to be operational by 1971.
However, before the building of the airport can begin a good deal of preliminary work has to be com pleted. A new radio receiving station has to be built in the Arorangi district, a new communications centre has to be constructed in Avarua, and miles of underground radio and tele phone lines have to be laid.
Last October a Ministry of Works team from New Zealand arrived in Rarotonga and started to build a 65 ft extension to the government and Post Office block in Avarua.
This will be the new communications centre and the first floor will contain radio equipment.
It is to be a solid building with beams, pillars and floors of rein forced concrete and concrete block walls. By February the ground floor had been completed and work on the first floor was progressing.
In late October the same team began work on the foundations of the new radio receiving station at Aro’a, in the Arorangi district.
Technicians from New Zealand installed a new telephone switch board in the first floor of the govern ment and Post Office block, and the new telephone exchange was officially opened by the Premier, Mr. Albert Henry, in January.
The laying of underground radio and telephone lines is proceeding, but it will be at least a year before this iob is completed.
Pidi Leke puts the finishing touches to one of the Dubu dancing platform posts he has carved for the University of Papua and New Guinea. The Port Moresby Local Government Council is making a gift of two of these posts to the university.