New Zealand is responsible for the administration of three South Pacific territories – Niue Island, the Tokelau Islands, and, until 1965, the Cook Islands. The Minister of Island Territories is charged with the administration of the territories through the Resident Commissioners of the Cook Islands (stationed at Rarotonga) and Niue, and the Administrator of the Tokelau Islands (stationed in Apia, Western Samoa). The Department of Island Territories, with offices in Wellington and Auckland, assists in the coordination of the formulation and development of New Zealand's policy in the territories. It also transmits advice and assistance from New Zealand Government Departments to the territorial governments, runs the G.m.v. Moana Roa, and acts as purchasing agent for the territorial governments.
All islanders born in New Zealand territories are British subjects and New Zealand citizens. The total population in the islands is slightly over 25,000, and a further 8,000 Cook, Niue, and Tokelau Islanders are living in New Zealand.
There are 15 islands in the Cook Group with a total land area of less than 100 square miles. They lie in an 850,000 square mile area extending from 8° south to almost 23° south, and from 156° west to 167° west. The islands can be divided into a northern and a southern group. The eight southern islands include two volcanic islands, Rarotonga and Aitutaki, four raised atolls of varying size and elevation (Mangaia, Mauke, Atiu, and Mitiaro), and two tiny coral atolls, Takutea and Manuae. The seven northern islands are all coral atolls – Penrhyn, Manihiki, Rakahanga, Pukapuka, Palmerston, Nassau, and Suwarrow.
Rarotonga (16,602 acres), the administrative centre and main port, is a circular island with a central volcanic basalt core rising to more than 2,000 ft, surrounded by a low lying alluvial and coral lowland half a mile wide. Beyond this is a shallow lagoon surrounded by a coral reef. The uncultivated interior is bush-clad and steep. The population lives on and cultivates the fertile coastal lowlands which have rich alluvial soils.
Aitutaki (4,461 acres) is an atoll-shaped volcanic island. The island lies at the north-western corner of a roughly triangular lagoon. Here again the people live on the coast.
Mangaia (12,700 acres), Mauke (4,552 acres), Atiu (6,654 acres), and Mitiaro (2,594 acres) have plateau-shaped interiors of rough coral which were originally lagoon floors. Low volcanic hills in varying stages of dissection lie in the middle of the islands. A plateau, up to a mile wide (the “makatea”), surrounds the interior. A fringing reef juts out from a jagged coastline and there is no surrounding lagoon.
Takutea and Manuae are small atolls (302 and 1,524 acres respectively) which are planted in coconuts and worked as plantations.
Penrhyn (2,432 acres), Manihiki (1,344 acres), Rakahanga (960 acres), Pukapuka (1,250 acres), Palmerston (1,000 acres), Nassau (300 acres), and Suwarrow (600 acres) are typical low-lying coral atolls with small “motus” on a reef surrounding an interior lagoon rich in fish. The soils are sandy and sparse and support mainly coconuts. The inhabitants live a simple subsistence existence.
The Cook Group lies within the hurricane belt but severe hurricanes are rare. The climate of the southern islands is mild and equable, the mean annual temperature being 75° and the annual rainfall about 85 in. There are streams on Rarotonga and Mangaia. The climate of the northern atolls is hot and, because of the porous nature of the soil and the absence of any surface water, water supplies are precarious.
The Cook Islands Maoris are Polynesians with similar language and customs to the New Zealand Maoris. The population of the group increased by a startling 10·1 per cent in the five years between the censuses of 1956 and 1961. The populations of the various islands at the most recent census (25 September 1961) were – Rarotonga 8,676, Aitutaki 2,582, Atiu 1,266, Mangaia 1,877, Mauke 785, Manihiki 1,006, Pukapuka 718, Rakahanga 319, Penrhyn 628, Mitiaro 307, Palmerston 86, Nassau 109, Manuae 18, and Suwarrow 1 – a total population of 18,378. Over 84 per cent of the total population live in the southern islands and more than 47 per cent of all Cook Islanders live on Rarotonga, where there is a population density of over 300 people to the square mile. The high birthrate of just under 50 per 1,000 of population in 1962 is not counterbalanced by an infant mortality rate of 48 per 1,000 live births, nor by emigration of Cook Islanders to New Zealand, which exceeds arrivals by approximately four to one. Hence there is a steadily increasing pressure on land in the Group which is acting as an urgent spur to intensified production. Emigration patterns in the Cook Islands (and Niue) continue to reveal a steady movement of population to New Zealand. The movement is naturally controlled by existing travel facilities and does not as yet raise any great problems in New Zealand. As Cook Islanders are New Zealand citizens, there are no restrictions on their entry to New Zealand.
All Cook Islanders are Christians, the great majority being adherents of the Cook Islands Christian Church which is a London Missionary Society body. There are also Roman Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, and Latter Day Saints missions in the Group.
Rarotonga was settled 27 generations ago by two chiefs and their people – Karika from Samoa, and Tangiia from Tahiti. Mangaia, Aitutaki, Atiu, Takutea, Mitiaro, and Manuae were discovered by Captain Cook in 1773. Rarotonga was visited by the Bounty in 1789. The crew of the Cumberland, commanded by Captain Goodenough, were the first Europeans to land on Rarotonga (1814). The Rev. John Williams and missionary teachers landed in 1823 from the Endeavour, establishing the first real contact on Rarotonga between European and Maori. Piecemeal discovery of the northern islands began with the Spanish discovery of Pukapuka in 1595 and Rakahanga in 1606. Palmerston was discovered in 1773, and Penrhyn in 1788. London Missionary Society missionaries were the predominant governors and law-makers in the Cook Islands until the 1890s. The southern islands were declared a British protectorate in 1888, and most of the northern group was annexed at the same time by British naval vessels. A British Resident was stationed in Rarotonga in 1890 and established island councils on each of the southern islands and a Federal Parliament in Rarotonga.
In June 1901 both the northern and the southern islands were included within the boundaries of New Zealand, following a petition by the chiefs of Rarotonga, Atiu, Mauke, and Mitiaro. The Federal Parliament was then abolished. Between 1901 and 1946, government in the Cook Islands was carried out by the Resident Commissioner of Rarotonga, resident agents under his control being stationed in most of the outer islands. Each island had its own Council presided over by the resident agent and, in the case of Rarotonga, by the Resident Commissioner. Since 1946 major steps have been taken with the aim of progressively encouraging responsible internal self-government. A Cook Islands Legislative Council was constituted in 1946. The Council met annually in Rarotonga and consisted of Maori representatives from most islands in the Group plus a majority of official members. The Council was largely an advisory body with no financial and limited legislative powers.
Following the preparation in 1954 of a programme for economic development in the Group (the Belshaw-Stace Report), a constitutional survey in 1956–57, and the introduction in 1956 of local income tax, an important amendment to the Cook Islands Act (1957) reconstituted the Legislative Council as a representative Legislative Assembly of the Cook Islands with increased legislative powers. There were 14 members elected by universal suffrage by the Maori electors of the various islands, seven members elected by the various island councils, one European member and four official members. As President, the Resident Commissioner had a casting but not a deliberate vote. The Assembly took over control of revenue raised within the Cook Islands. Local Justices of the Peace and village councils were provided for, and came into existence in 1960.
As the first of a series of steps along the road towards complete internal self-government, the Assembly assumed full authority over all revenue in 1962. In the same year an Executive Committee of the Assembly was established to exercise any powers relating to Government policy delegated to it by the Assembly or the Resident Commissioner. At its session in 1962, the Assembly declared internal self-government to be its aim for the Group. The Assembly emphasised that Cook Islanders wished to retain their New Zealand citizenship.
At its 1963 session the Assembly chose a Leader of Government Business and four other members to form a new Executive Committee or “shadow cabinet”, each member being allocated responsibility for certain Government Departments. It also considered a timetable for constitutional development. At their own request members of the Assembly were guided by three expert advisers who drew up a plan which was approved by the Assembly and the New Zealand Government. This provided for full internal self-government in 1965 and continued association with New Zealand, the Cook Islanders remaining New Zealand citizens. The new Legislative Assembly of 22 elected members is to have complete legislative autonomy. Executive government is to be controlled by a cabinet chosen from members of the Assembly and headed by a Premier. New Zealand will continue to conduct the external affairs of the Cook Islands and will continue to make three-yearly grants-in-aid to the Cook Islands budget. A New Zealand official will represent the Queen as Head of State and will also act as representative of the New Zealand Government in the Cook Islands. A Cook Islands Constitution Act was passed by the New Zealand Parliament in 1964 to provide the necessary machinery for these political changes, which will come into effect when the Cook Islands Assembly endorses the Constitution.
The traditional Cook Islands Maori social structure has largely broken down, and today the family is the basis of Cook Islands society. Traditionally there were three chiefly ranks – the mataiapo and the rangatira or the heads of families who controlled family lands and public affairs, and above them the ariki, who were the highest chiefs in their own districts, selected from particular chiefly families. Occupiers of family lands formerly had various obligations towards these chiefs, but the old structure was greatly modified by church organisation, the advent of trade, and the individualisation of family lands. The three titles are still recognised and carry a limited amount of influence but they no longer form the basis of the social structure, which can now be said to be westernised. The principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are recognised in the Group, and there is no discrimination between the rights of men and women, either under statute law or under Maori custom.
Labour and employment conditions vary from island to island. The northern islands support a basically subsistence existence, with copra providing a very limited cash crop. In the southern islands, subsistence agriculture is strongly bolstered by growing for export, and small secondary industries and shipping connections provide alternative employment opportunities. A single workers' union, the Cook Islands Industrial Union of Workers, covers all classes of workers in the Group. The basic wage rate is 14s. per eight-hour day for unskilled labour, with varying rates for skilled workers. The Cook Islands Government is the largest employer in the Group. About three-quarters of the male working population work on their own plantations.
The Government's Social Development Department concentrates on community development activities, with the aims of improving good relationships between the people and the Government, raising standards of living, and promoting opportunities for leadership and cooperation. The home education of women, adult education, youth clubs, and a housing loan scheme are important aspects of this work. The standard of housing in the Group is improving under the impetus of housing schemes sponsored by the Government. A Housing Improvement Board administers the £150,000 housing loan scheme. Northern group housing is predominantly of the thatch-weave (“kikau”) type, but in the southern islands construction with permanent materials is more widespread.
The Cook Islands economy is steadily becoming more stable with increasing emphasis on an export trade of cash crops from the southern islands, which export citrus fruit (oranges, tangerines, mandarins, and grapefruit), tomatoes, bananas, pineapples, coffee, and copra. Two clothing factories and one jewellery factory in Rarotonga account for slightly under £200,000 worth of exports a year. The sole exports from the sandy northern islands are copra and mother-of-pearl shell (from the Manihiki and Penrhyn lagoons). In 1961 a commercial fruit canning factory was opened in Rarotonga. The first year's success of this venture gave a return of slightly under £100,000. Annual production is now approximately 640,000 gallons of fruit juice returning over £390,000.
Principal subsistence crops in the Group are coconuts and fish, supplemented by small quantities of taro and bananas in the northern islands, and by coconuts, bananas, manioc, and taro in the southern islands. Bread is baked on all islands.
The Cook Islands Department of Agriculture is pursuing a policy of experimental and extension work in the fertile southern islands, aimed at strengthening the Group's agricultural export production. Emphasis over past years has been placed on a citrus replanting scheme and citrus exports now account for over 25 per cent of the total exports. The Department is now diversifying the economy, and is concentrating on the improvement of copra, coffee, and pineapple production as well as experimenting with peanut trials.
There are 70 cooperative societies in the Cook Islands, and over one-third are on Rarotonga. A Government Department of Cooperation registers, guides, and audits the societies and also runs a Cooperative Bank to help to consolidate the cooperative movement. The Bank turnover is approximately £150,000 a year.
The Cook Islands Legislative Assembly has complete control of the finances of the Group. Local revenue is raised from income, wharfage, road and sales tax receipts, exports, customs duties, and the application of local ordinances. Local revenue accounts for approximately 17 per cent of the total expenditure. The deficit is made up by the New Zealand Government by three-year lump sum grants, which are paid to the Cook Islands Legislative Assembly and subject to the full budgetary control of the Assembly. Details of these grants between 1962 and 1965 are:
| 1962–63 | 1963–64 | 1964–65 | |
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Ordinary subsidy | 536,900 | 574,500 | 619,300 |
| Capital subsidy— | |||
| (a) Works and plant | 180,000 | 180,000 | 180,000 |
| (b) Economic development | 20,000 | 20,000 | 10,000 |
| Housing improvement scheme | 15,000 | 20,000 | 20,000 |
| Total | 751,900 | 794,500 | 829,300 |
Receipts and expenditure between 1960 and 1965 were:
| Receipts | Expenditure | |
| £ | £ | |
| 1960–61 | 509,941 | 1,118,004 |
| 1961–62 | 521,420 | 1,093,731 |
| 1962–63 | 536,493 | 1,091,588 |
| 1963–64 | 663,110 | 1,253,470 |
| 1964–65 | 1,616,237 | 1,630,483 |
New Zealand currency is used in the Cook Islands. There are no trading banks but the Cook Islands Post Office is a sub-branch of the Auckland branch of the Post Office Savings Bank.
A modified New Zealand customs tariff is in force. Imports in 1964 totalled £1,502,659, 70 per cent coming from New Zealand.
| Principal Exports, 1964 | ||
| Quantity |
Value
£ |
|
| Fruit juices (gallons) | 639,672 | 393,499 |
| Clothing | .. | 170,392 |
| Citrus fruit (cases) | 101,749 | 150,240 |
| Copra (tons) | 1,300 | 74,828 |
| Tomatoes (cases) | 61,387 | 53,481 |
| Pearl shell (tons) | 63 | 26,010 |
Transport between the islands of the Group has always been a problem because of the distances involved. The Department of Island Territories runs a 2,750-ton, 13-knot motor vessel, the Moana Roa. Sailings between Auckland and Rarotonga are generally at three- to four-weekly intervals and calls are made at other southern group islands when cargoes are offering. Matson liners call at Rarotonga at three-weekly intervals, mainly for passengers. Trans-Pacific freighters also visit Rarotonga when cargo is available, and cruise ships, mission vessels, and yachts make occasional calls there. There is no good harbour in any of the islands of the Group. Vessels anchor off the reef in an open roadstead at Rarotonga and usually cruise up and down outside the reef at the other islands during loading and unloading. Rarotonga in the south and Penrhyn in the north afford the only anchorages within lagoons for small vessels.
Small motor vessels ply between the islands of the Group carrying inter-island passengers and cargo. Communications were improved from 1961 when the New Zealand Government offered to subsidise ship owners trading in the Cook Islands. The subsidy is paid to owners of vessels which are maintained to certain classified standards and which are available for voyages within the Group as requested by the Government. Three classified vessels now provide what is probably the best internal shipping service the Group has had for many years.
Serviceable airstrips are in use in Rarotonga, Aitutaki, and Penrhyn and there is also a seaplane base at Aitutaki. Polynesian Airlines make a fortnightly call at Rarotonga, from Western Samoa. RNZAF and CAA aircraft visit the Group periodically. Rarotonga (with 400 subscribers) and Aitutaki are the only two islands with telephone facilities.
A Government radio station at Rarotonga has links with New Zealand, Western Samoa, Fiji, and 12 substations in the outer Cook Islands. Radio Rarotonga (ZK1ZA), a Social Development Department venture, broadcasts music and spoken-word programmes to the Group for approximately 20 hours a week. There is a commercial radio telephone service.
All health and dental facilities are provided free by the Government and a chief medical officer controls both remedial and public health work in the Group. He is assisted by a staff of three medical officers and one dental officer, 16 Cook Islands assistant medical officers, and three assistant dental officers, and by a local nursing staff, headed by a European matron and sisters. The Rarotonga Hospital has 57 beds. There is also a 70-bed tuberculosis sanatorium on Rarotonga. There are cottage-type hospitals on Aitutaki, Mangaia, Atiu, Manihiki, Pukapuka, and Penrhyn and the remainder of the islands have dispensaries. All the larger islands have resident assistant medical officers and the smaller islands, dispensers.
The general health of Cook Islanders is good. The birthrate per 1,000 population is over 40, and the deathrate below 10. Tuberculosis is the only prevalent disease. Although one in every 100 persons is receiving treatment for this disease, 75 per cent of the cases can be treated at home. There is a mass miniature radiography unit and BCG vaccine is widely used. A filariasis control scheme is being carried out in the outer islands with excellent results by a medical officer of the New Zealand Medical Research Council. The entire population of the Group has been immunised from poliomyelitis with oral Sabin vaccine. Yaws and leprosy are under control and are no longer serious.
Special emphasis has been placed on child welfare and maternity services and on public health work during recent years. The Group's infant mortality rate is below 50 per 1,000 live births, and there are over 30 child welfare clinics on Rarotonga.
Education in the Group is free and compulsory between the ages of six and 14. The Government provides schooling in all permanently inhabited islands and villages. There are 24 Government primary schools (total rolls in 1965–4,490), one post-primary school (Tereora College–448 pupils), three junior high schools (at Aitutaki, Atiu, and Mangaia), and one teachers' training college (167 students). In addition, there are six independent Mission schools in five islands (total roll 397).
The Director of Education controls a staff of over 550 teachers and student teachers. The school curriculum is based broadly on the New Zealand curriculum, with emphasis on subjects related to the special needs of the Cook Islands. Emphasis is given to woodwork, homecrafts, and agriculture as well as to academic subjects. English is rather naturally the Cook Islanders' most difficult subject.
The New Zealand Government Training Scheme continues to be the most important means of educating selected Cook Islanders to New Zealand standards for varied positions of responsibility in the islands. Over 100 Cook Islanders are receiving training in New Zealand under the scheme, in schools, universities, hospitals, training colleges, and trade apprenticeships.
The main educational problem being faced by the Cook Islands Government is a shortage of trained teachers to cater for the rapidly increasing school rolls.
Situated 19°s and 169 50'w, Niue is an elevated outcrop of emerged coral reefs, 100 square miles in area. The interior of the island is a saucer-shaped plateau about 220 ft above sea level. A second reef surrounds the plateau at about 90 ft above sea level and is nowhere more than half a mile wide. Apart from the rise from the lower to the upper terrace, there are no hills. A coral reef fringes the island at low tide immediately adjoining a precipitous and broken coastline. There is no lagoon between this reef and the coast. The island consists solely of limestone resting on a volcanic substructure of basalt rock. The residue of weathered limestone constitutes Niue soils which, although fertile, are not plentiful. The terrain is rocky and broken, and cultivation is accordingly difficult. Apart from cleared areas for roads and villages, Niue is entirely covered with light scrub or forest. Coconuts, whilst found throughout the island, grow mainly within 2 miles of the coast.
There are no running streams and no surface water but a well on the western coast provides fresh ground water.
There are no harbours on Niue. There is an open-sea anchorage at Alofi, the principal village, where a narrow channel has been cut into the fringing reef and a jetty erected.
Niue lies on the edge of the hurricane belt and high winds or hurricanes are likely to occur between December and March. On the whole, however, the climate is mild and equable. The mean annual temperature is 76·6 and the annual rainfall 79·4 in. Rainfall is generally well distributed over the year but occasional droughts occur in the dry season between April and November.
Niueans are Polynesians affiliated to the Tongans and the Samoans. There has been little intermarriage with Europeans because of the isolation of the island, but there is a local mixture of other Pacific races. The population at the most recent census (25 September 1961) was 4,864 – 2,404 males and 2,460 females. 4,311 were Niueans and 81 were Europeans. A high birthrate is balanced by the emigration to New Zealand of approximately 200 Niueans a year. Immigration into Niue is controlled by the Government of Niue.
Most Niueans are adherents of the London Missionary Society.
The first European known to have visited Niue was Captain Cook who landed in 1774. European missionary visits date from 1830, the first resident European missionary, the Rev. W. G. Lawes, of the London Missionary Society, arriving in 1861. Christianity was introduced to the island mainly by Paulo, a Samoan teacher who arrived in 1849 after being trained by the London Missionary Society.
Niuean society is believed to have existed for more than 1,000 years; a kingly system existed until early in the twentieth century. The old form of Government was patriarchal, the “patus” or heads of families ruling, and electing their kings. Eleven June 1961 marked the sixtieth anniversary of Niue's annexation by New Zealand. (The Niuean people had applied to Queen Victoria in 1887, 1898, and 1899 for British protection and the island had been made a British protectorate in 1900.)
An Island Council with one representative for each village (and replacing the old island council nominated by the King) met for the first time in October 1901 and passed the island's first draft ordinances. The Cook Islands Act of 1915, brought into force in Niue on 1 April 1916, consolidated all the laws relating to Niue and, with its subsequent amendments, still forms the basis of the island's law. The Island Council was disbanded in 1959 and reconstituted as the Niue Island Assembly with wider powers of budgetary control. In 1962 the Assembly assumed complete control over all expenditure on the island.
A New Zealand Resident Commissioner, who is responsible to the Minister of Island Territories in Wellington, heads the executive government of Niue. He is President of the Assembly, which is elected by universal suffrage, and Chairman of the Assembly's Executive Committee. Ordinances passed by the Assembly require the Resident Commissioner's assent or that of the Governor-General of New Zealand.
Village government affairs are largely settled at weekly meetings of the village patus, led by the Assembly member and the village pastor. There is a High Court and a Native Land Court on Niue; the Resident Commissioner acts as Judge of both Courts.
The family is the basis of the Niuean community. The head of the family, or patu, has a voice in village affairs. There is no tribal system or hereditary rank. Provisions relating to human rights which apply in New Zealand apply also to Niueans. The basic wage rate at 31 March 1965 was 1s. 11d. per hour for unskilled labour, with varying rates for skilled workers. The Government is the largest employer of labour but more than 90 per cent of able-bodied Niueans work as subsistence and export planters on their own land.
The standard of housing on Niue is rapidly improving as the Government's £172,000 housing scheme nears completion. The scheme, which was introduced after the almost total destruction of the island's housing by hurricanes in 1959 and 1960, provides for the erection of 750 new homes and 150 one-roomed portable units for elderly people. The houses, of coral concrete construction with asbestos roofing, are erected to approved designs by the people themselves, the materials being provided under £175 loans repayable over 12 years. By 31 March 1965, all of these new homes and old people's units had been erected and occupied.
Niue's economy is based predominantly on subsistence agriculture with a small but steady export trade of cash crops. Of the island's 64,900 acres, 8,000 are in coastal, light and heavy forest, and a further 50,000 acres are available for agriculture and partly in production. Practically all land is owned by the Niuean people in accordance with their old-established customs.
A traditional pattern of shifting agriculture is gradually being broken down through the extensive activities of the Agriculture Department. Niuean planters are being encouraged to develop small areas of their holdings with modern agricultural machinery and fertilisers loaned by the Department; production increases as high as 400 per cent have followed the introduction of intensive cultivation.
The principal subsistence crops are taro, yam, cassava, pawpaw, bananas, coconuts, and kumaras.
The principal exports are copra, bananas, kumaras, and plaited ware. The quantities and value of the principal items for 1964 were:
| Quantity | Value (£) | |
| Copra (tons) | 577 | 33,088 |
| Bananas (cases) | 6,356 | 7,220 |
| Kumaras (bags) | 8,145 | 16,790 |
| Plaited ware | .. | 5,213 |
Imports in 1964 totalled £228,210, over 70 per cent coming from New Zealand.
Livestock is confined mainly to pigs and domestic fowls. There are a few cattle and horses on the island.
Revenue raised on Niue from exports, local taxation, customs duties, and the application of local Ordinances accounts for less than 15 per cent of the total expenditure. The deficit is made up by the New Zealand Government by three-yearly lump sum grants, as in the Cook Islands. Details of these grants between 1962 and 1965 are:
| 1962–63 | 1963–64 | 1964–65 | |
| £ | £ | £ | |
| Ordinary subsidy | 192,000 | 205,800 | 221,300 |
| Capital subsidy— | |||
| (a) Works and plant | 80,000 | 80,000 | 80,000 |
| (b) Economic development | 10,000 | 10,000 | 5,000 |
| Total | 282,000 | 295,800 | 306,300 |
Receipts and expenditure between 1960 and 1965 were:
| Receipts | Expenditure | |
| £ | £ | |
| 1960-61 | 242,718 | 481,013 |
| 1961-62 | 228,014 | 505,925 |
| 1962-63 | 181,206 | 422,462 |
| 1963-64 | 194,175 | 382,436 |
| 1964-65 | 235,043 | 523,981 |
As in the Cook Islands, New Zealand currency is used on Niue. The Niue Post Office is also a sub-branch of the Auckland Branch of the Post Office Savings Bank.
A modified New Zealand Customs Tariff is in force.
Communications with Niue are limited. The Union Steam Ship Company's m.v. Tofua calls at the island once every four weeks, remaining for only one day. Fuel supplies are received from Fiji by sea approximately every three months. Ships anchor some chains off shore in the Alofi open roadstead, and cargo is worked by three launches and eight lighters through a narrow channel in the reef to a concrete jetty. There is no airfield or flying boat base on the island but flying boats can alight in Alofi Bay in emergencies if weather conditions are favourable.
The Government-owned radio station at Alofi maintains daily telegraphic schedules with New Zealand, Western Samoa, the Cook Islands, and Fiji for news, weather, and shipping reports. The equipment at the station includes a radio telephone for use in emergencies only.
Standard time on Niue is 23 hours behind New Zealand time.
All medical, hospital, and dental facilities on Niue are provided by the Government, and the services are free to patients. A European Chief Medical Officer is assisted by a staff of five Niuean assistant medical officers, two Niuean assistant dental officers, and a Niuean nursing staff headed by a European matron. The Government hospital in Alofi has 28 general and 21 tuberculosis beds. Most of the buildings are modern, having been erected within the last five years. Modern medical and dental equipment is available, but occasional medical cases of a more serious nature requiring specialist treatment are sent to New Zealand for attention.
The birthrate per 1,000 population is over 40, and the death rate under 10. Serious disease is rare. Forty-five tuberculosis cases were under treatment in 1964 following a complete tuberculosis survey of the island; most of these were on home treatment. Filariasis and yaws are no longer prevalent and poliomyelitis and whooping cough are non-existent. Intestinal helminthiasis is present in just under 40 per cent of the population. The abundance of flies on the island, inadequate toilets, and a precarious water supply are considered to be the causes of the disease.
There is a high standard of ante- and post-natal supervision on the island, and the Health Department places special emphasis on child welfare activities.
Education on Niue is free and compulsory between the ages of six and 14. All schools are owned and staffed by the Niue Government. There are seven Niuean primary schools and one post-primary school – the Niue High School just outside Alofi–which caters for selected pupils from Form 3 to Form 5 level. The Director of Education has a staff of approximately 100 teachers. School rolls at March 1965 totalled 1,574. The primary school curriculum is based broadly on the New Zealand curriculum but special emphasis is placed on agriculture, woodwork, sewing, weaving, health, and Niuean language and culture. English reading is introduced in the children's third year at school and, by the final two years at primary school, all teaching is in English.
The high school has five academic classes plus a special “homebuilders” class specialising in sewing, cookery, mothercraft, agriculture, and carpentry. Brighter high school students are selected to attend New Zealand high schools under the New Zealand Government Training Scheme. (In 1965 41 Niuean students were studying in New Zealand under this scheme.)
A small teachers' training centre in Alofi provides two-year training courses for Niuean teachers.
Three tiny coral atolls comprise the Tokelau group –Fakaofo, Nukunono, and Atafu. They lie approximately 50 miles apart and 300 miles north of Western Samoa. Each atoll consists of a number of reefbound islets encircling a lagoon. The islets do not rise more than 15 ft above sea level and their total land area is four square miles. The average mean temperature is 82°F.
The Tokelauans are Polynesians who are culturally and linguistically linked to the Samoans, but their remote atoll way of life most closely approximates that of the northern Cook Islanders. The population at the census of 25 September 1961 was 1,860, 874 males and 986 females.
The first European to visit the group is believed to have been Commodore Byron, RN, in 1765. The group became a British protectorate in 1877 and was annexed by Britain in 1916, being included with the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. New Zealand took over administration of the group in 1925 and in 1948 included it within the territorial boundaries of New Zealand; Tokelauans thereby became New Zealand citizens as well as British subjects. The group is administered by the High Commissioner for New Zealand in Western Samoa in his capacity of Administrator of the Tokelau Islands.
The basis of law in the group is the 1948 Tokelau Islands Act which preserves unrevoked legislation made by the Western Pacific High Commission prior to 1925 together with subsequent New Zealand regulations. Local government is controlled by the “faipule” on each island who is the chief Government representative. The faipule administers the law and presides over the local court. He is democratically elected for a term of three years and is assisted by the village mayor or “pulenu'u” who is in effect the principal executive official.
A simple atoll existence consisting mainly of subsistence planting and fishing is centred around the family unit. Village affairs are looked after by a council of family elders. Human rights are protected by legislation as they are in New Zealand. Housing is of timber-framing covered by pandanus with gabled roofing.
The principal food crops of the almost entirely subsistence economy are coconuts, breadfruit, pawpaws, and bananas. All land is owned by the Tokelauan families according to their own custom.
Approximately once a quarter, a chartered vessel visits the atolls from Western Samoa to load their only exports, copra and plaited ware. Approximately 200 tons of copra are exported each year. Imports consist mainly of foodstuffs, kerosene, and tobacco.
New Zealand currency is used and expenditure is mainly devoted to health, education, and agriculture. The territory's economy is subsidised by the New Zealand Government by approximately £40,000 a year.
Apart from the quarterly trading visit from Western Samoa, the group's only connections with the outside world are by daily radio telegraphic schedules and an occasional RNZAF flying boat visit for urgent medical cases or to fly in Government officials.
Normally an assistant medical officer resides on each atoll and he is assisted by Tokelauan nursing staff. Regular visits are made to the Group by medical officers of the Government of Western Samoa, and specialist services are made available by the New Zealand Government. Nutrition standards are as good as atoll conditions will permit. Filaria, skin diseases, and eye trouble are the major sicknesses but all are kept under control.
Schooling, which is free and compulsory, is carried out by Tokelauan teachers in two Government primary schools, and by Roman Catholic European missionaries in the sole mission primary school. Selected students are sent to New Zealand, Western Samoa, and Fiji for higher education.
by Selwyn Digby Wilson, B.A., Department of Island Territories, Wellington.