Grumbles At Aitutaki
p. 93 · Read in the full issue
Shipping Service
The people of Aitutaki, the Cooks second most highly-populated island, feel they are being neglected. Their shipping service is bad, they say, the cost of living too high and the water supply is inadequate.
They gave a list of their grievances to the Cook Islands Minister of Works and Communications, Mr. W.
Estall, when he called there in June.
The biggest complaint was over shipping. NZ ships call at Aitutaki to collect the island’s bananas but don’t bring any cargo, which is left at Rarotonga and has to be shipped
by local vessels, even though it’s been consigned to them.
This means double freight and double handling. No wonder the cost of living is so high, the Aitutakians said, adding that on-shore loading facilities were poor and it took two to three days to turn local ships around. There was a large crane for heavy loads but nothing else so that heavy drums of fuel and other heavy goods had to be manhandled.