Albert Henry dies

Deaths

of Islands People

Albert Royle Henry, Premier of the Cook Islands for 13 years until 1978, died in Rarotonga on January 1, aged 73. His death occurred in the Raro tonga Hospital from a heart condition following a long period of illness. He had been admitted to hospital earlier that day by his physician. Dr Joe Williams, after his condition had begun to deteriorate.

Mr Henry was buried next day in the grounds of the historic Cook Islands Christian Church, Avarua, following a state funeral marked by a three

hour-long procession. A day of mourning was declared for the following Monday, January 5.

Albert Henry was the son of Geoffrey and Metua Henry, of Aitutaki. His father was a minor chief who was head teacher at Araura School, Aitutaki, and later became the first Cook Islander resident agent, on one of the outer islands. The Henry family had traditionally been supporters and protectors of an early missionary to Aitutaki, the Rev Henry Royle, who had arrived in 1839. This is why the name Royle was given to Henry, who was born on June 11, 1906, while his mother was on a visit to Rarotonga with a member of the missionary family.

He went to school at Aitutaki, where he was such an outstanding pupil that at the age of 13 he won, against children several years older, a scholarship to New Zealand.

He was not permitted to accept it because of his age, and in disgust his father himself paid his son’s fare to Auckland and his fees at a church boarding school there, St Stephen’s College.

This was in 1919, and he returned to Rarotonga in 1923, taking a number of jobs before becoming a student teacher at Arorangi at the age of 18. He was a first-rate teacher and rose to become acting headmaster at Araura, Aitutaki. He resigned from teaching in protest at the administration’s decision to re duce his salary because he had his own house and grew his own food, and thus ‘didn’t need it’.

He had married Elizabeth Connal, of Aitutaki, in 1927, when both were teaching school in Rarotonga, and they had four children.

With his departure from Aitutaki, Albert Henry joined A. B. Donald’s, the Island traders, in Rarotonga, and there followed many busy and active years during which he studied book-keeping, gave lessons in both Maori and English at night, and produced a popular Maori newspaper, Te Akatauira (Morning Star). He was a prominent sportsman, and a well known and popular Raro tongan identity. His work at

Donald’s involved him deeply in the islanders’ agricultural prob lems, particularly their difficulties over marketing and shipping.

With the advent of war, the Henry family moved to New Zealand, where Albert Henry thought his children would have more opportunities. They ar rived in Auckland in 1942, when Albert Henry was 37, and he took many jobs, including agricultural worker and bus washer, before becoming a bus driver at Browns Bay, where he also became interested in local politics and was appointed sec retary of the Browns Bay Labour Party.

For 14 years he was a fre quent interpreter for Cook Islanders in the Auckland courts, and as a result of his close involvement with his fel low Cook Islanders he formed NZ branches of the Cook Islands Progressive Association, which had been begun in the Cooks with the help of Dr Tom Davis, then a young Cooks medical officer.

He took a close interest in Cooks affairs from Auckland, organising a co-operative to buy a ship, La Reta, in an effort to solve the Cooks shipping prob lems. But this was a failure and led to some popular disenchant ment with his work.

Always a fighter and opti mist, he fought back and saw his opportunity as the Cooks moved closer to self government. He established the Cook Islands-NZ Society, which later became the basis for his successful Cook Islands Party, which won the self government elections in 1965, with 14 out of 22 seats. He had spent the previous year back in the Cooks, displaying the politi cal organisation skills which were his trade mark for the rest of his career.

His was the only properly organised party at that time, and its leader always knew where he wanted it to go.

Although the architect of vie

tory, he himself was not elected to the assembly because of a rule that Islanders had to be resident in the Cooks for three years before an election. But Henry campaigned on the basis that electors should install his sister Marguerite Story, to keep his seat warm until the new assembly could change the rule to one-year residence. This they did, and, with the rule changed, Mrs Story resigned and Albert Henry was elected.

The Henry government was in power from 1965 to 1978, facing elections in 1968, 1974 and 1978.

Albert Henry received a knighthood (the KBE) person ally at the hands of the Queen during her visit to Rarotonga in 1974, and was proud of the honour. He was despondent at having the knighthood taken away from him in 1979 follow ing his conviction for fraud.

This arose from the general elections of March 1978, when he arranged to fly in voters from New Zealand (legal under the electoral laws), offering free passage on condition that they voted for the Cook Islands Party. He used money for aircraft charter which was later proved to have been govern ment money.

The Opposition Democratic Party under Dr Tom Davis launched a court challenge on the legality of the fly-ins. The appeal was upheld, and in July 1978 the illegal votes were discounted, resulting in the Opposition taking government.

In August, 1979, Sir Albert was fined for conspiracy to defraud and for a breach of the Public Monies Act.

He had lived fairly quietly in Rarotonga since those tumul tuous events. It was typical of the man that after the July 1978 court had made its decision to turn out the government, Albert Henry congratulated the new Premier, announced that he would abide by the rule of the law, and appealed to his sup porters for calm.

Fatialofa Momo’E

While on a private visit to Hawaii, in December. Fatialofa was a veteran politician of Western Samoa. An MP since 1967 representing the territorial constituency of Lepa, Fatialofa was minister of post office and radio in 1970. He also served on

various parliamentary com mittees. He was in Hawaii to attend the ordination ceremon ies of a young Catholic priest, the son of a friend.

Sir Alan Burns

On September 23, 1980, Sir Alan Burns, GCMG, the dis tinguished colonial adminis trator, aged 93.

Entering the British Colonial Service in 1905, he served in the Leeward Islands, Bahamas, Nigeria and the Gold Coast Colony, and in this latter governorship, initiated the Burns Constitution which led to self-government and the inde pendence of Ghana.

In the Pacific he led the 1958 Burns Commission into the Natural Resources and Popu lation Trends in Fiji.

The author of many works on colonial matters, he was a great patriot and a man of rare common sense, and will be remembered not only for his influence upon the evolution of former colonies to self government status, but also for his devoted personal interest in the welfare of all races in the territories entrusted to his ad

ministration.

LG.

Sir Mark Turner

In London, England, on December 13, Sir Mark Turner, 74, chairman of Rio Tinto-Zinc Corporation Ltd, and a director of the Australian mining group CRA Ltd. Sir Mark, as former chief executive of RTZ, played a significant role in the decision making which led to the estab lishment of the big Bougainville copper and gold mining oper ation in Papua New Guinea.

Thelma Hazel

Schmidt

In Auckland, New Zealand, on November 30, 1980, aged 85.

Her nephew, Quentin Anthony, writes: ‘She was the widow of Paul “Karkar” Schmidt, an old New Guinea identity who pion eered the first coconut plan tations on Karkar Island after his arrival in German New Guinea late last century. Mrs Schmidt, a member of the well-known New Zealand pion eering Monk family, met and married her husband in Rabaul in the early 1930 s and returned with him to his plantation at Palmalmal, Jacquinot Bay, New Britain.’