Land Tenure in the Cook Islands
The production of surpluses
The production of surpluses
Prior to the advent of Europeans every man subsisted by the direct exploitation of land in which he held rights. Surpluses were produced for storage against the possibility of famine, for feasts and ceremonial, and for the prestige one gained by having ample supplies of food, but beyond this there is no indication of any incentive operating to engender the accumulation of large quantities of food or other material goods. As there was no product in general use which was not available in every district on each island, one's requirements were normally obtainable from land or water in which recognized rights were held.
As a result of contact with European culture, it became possible to subsist by other means than the direct exploitation of one's land rights, and consequently, to live without rights to land. Not many persons lived without some direct exercise of land rights, but among those who did were the pastors on islands other than their own, who were fed by their congregations, outer islands labourers on European plantations in Rarotonga, seamen on local schooners, and pearl-shell divers in Manihiki and Penrhyn who came from other islands.
1 Kelly, The South Sea Islands… 49.
The production of cash crops may be considered in two major categories according to motivation. Firstly there was production aimed at achieving divine grace and status within the church, for the most influential early contacts with European culture had been with missionaries who impressed on the natives the necessity for church buildings and offerings of saleable goods and money. 1 Throughout the period a considerable proportion of total production was contributed in kind or in cash to one church project or another. 2 A spirit of competition was maintained by the missionaries by announcing publicly the donations of each contributing group and individual, 3 and an old man who sold his only cow in order to buy a new Bible for each member of his household was held up as an example of the ideal churchman. 4
1 E.g. ‘The State of the Society's funds I have not failed to lay before the people and urgently as possible pressed home upon their consciences a consideration of the subject…’ - Pitman to LMS 23.9.1842 SSL.
2 There was extensive planting of arrowroot in Rarotonga in the 1840s and almost the whole crop was ‘devoted to the service of God’ - Pitman to LMS 3.7.1849; Mission pamphlets and the Bible were regularly sold for coconuts, arrowroot, dried bananas, and other produce - Buzacott, Mission Life… 207; for the eight years 1873 to 1880 Mangaia gave an average of $1017 per year in cash to the church as well as free services and gifts in kind - Harris to LMS 20.8.1881 SSR; in 1876 the people of Avarua spent £600 to £700 on repairs to their church - Lovett, James Chalmers… 116. This quite possibly constituted more than half their total cash income for the year.
3 Pitman to LMS 3.7.1849 SSL.
4 [Hutchen], ‘Phases of Native Life…’ 29.
Secondly, the land could be used for cash cropping with the aim of acquiring material goods for personal consumption. This aim, which was in competition with the pressure for funds by the church, served as an additional incentive to production. A part of this incentive was provided by the church itself through its insistence on the use of certain imported commodities, and particularly on the wearing of imported cloth, 1 a commodity which was consequently the largest single item of trade throughout the period. 2
A further incentive was provided by a demand for certain consumers durables, the possession of which was considered essential to the maintenance of social status. Until the 1850s, houses and furniture in the European style were popular with the leding families, in the 1880s sewing machines became a must in every household, and by 1890 buggies were de rigeur for chiefs of standing. Whereas in the early stages the bulk of non-subsistence production had been devoted to church activity, as time went on an increasing proportion was devoted to the acquisition of material goods. The scale of consumption on ceremonial occasions in particular seems to have increased markedly. 3
1 Those who did not wear imported cloth were not considered eligible for baptism. - Maretu, MS 73.
2 While there is no statistical verification before 1880, the proportions of various articles paid in particular dealings show a high preponderance of cloth. For example, a whaler in 1837 bought 45 pigs for four to eight yards of blue cotton cloth per pig, 8 dozen fowls and ducks at six yards of cloth per dozen, and only for the smaller items of fruits and vegetables did they pay in ‘beads, toilet glasses, scissors, jewsharps, and fancy calico…’ - Putnam, Salem Vessels and Their Voyages 4:137.
3 For a wedding in 1904, for example, the presents given included 188 mats, approximately 5390 yards of cotton prints, 3500 yards of calico, 7 rolls of native tapa cloth, 70 dresses (some of silk and others of lace), 1 goat, 1 cow, 65 pigs, a clock, a Bible, a hymn book and £23.10.3 in cash. The total cash value was probably equal to more than 50 times the average annual per capita income of the island.