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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 13. 1964.
[introduction]
Who is the key man in the Cook Islands, the politician who will lead the Islands into self-government next year? There is now little doubt that the man is Albert Henry, leader of the only political party in the Islands and until last March an expatriate In New Zealand. A Salient interviewer spoke to him during his recent visit to Wellington.
Asked to explain how he became involved in Cook Islands politics, he said that there had been considerable misunderstanding and ignorance about the new Constitution, due to come into effect after the April elections in 1965. He had been asked to return to the Islands to clear this up, and went back in early March. The people then wanted him to stay there and go into politics. "So I thought the best thing to do would be to form a party and see what kind of support I would get," he said.
HIS Cook Islands' Party had a membership of 2300 in Raratonga alone when he left, and it could well be 3000 by now, he said. "I would say it had the support of at least 75 per cent of the population."