Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 37, No. 11. May 29, 1974

Cook Islands—our private Bantustan

Cook Islands—our private Bantustan

Give us your rich white and skilled

Give us your rich white and skilled

The Cooks received in 1972/1973 over 24% of the total New Zealand Aid budget, the largest single recipient of New Zealand Government money. When Lichauco spoke of the dependence of the victim of Imperialism on the force that victimised it the Cooks might well have fitted his thoughts exactly.

Over the years we have imposed a system of government that is based on New Zealand values. We have destroyed the self sufficiency of the traditional economy and replaced it with one that served the interests of New Zealand, created unemployment and placed the Cooks entirely at our economic mercy.

The present base of the economy lies in agriculture, in fruit and copra. New Zealand is the major market for these goods and controls the industry. A great deal of the economy of the Cook Islands is controlled by two New Zealand families. The Bakers, through Island foods, control the processing of primary produce and the Turners through Fruit Distributors control the export of fruit.

The Cooks have a massive balance of payments problem. In 1970 imports totalled $5.77 millions. In the same year exports totalled $2.7 millions. New Zealand provided 76% of imports. We also took 98.4% of the exports.

Although the Islands are fertile and productive 23.6% of imports to the Cooks were foodstuffs. Development on the basis of such dependent economy is nonsense.

42% of our 1972/1973 aid budget to the Cooks was in the form of loans totalling over 1.69 million dollars. Of this money $1.2 million was to refinance existing government debt. The drain on the economy to service debt will in the future place an intolerable strain on an already overburdened economy.

Of the almost $12 million dollars spent in the Cooks 1972/1973 $1.5 million was spent on paying the salaries and superannuation in the Islands. This is the most concrete example of the totality of their dependence on New Zealand. Half the amount gained in exports was given in aid by the New Zealand government to pay the salaries of civil servants.

With the completion of the international airport some diversification of the economy is expected with an influx of tourists. However, who will profit from that? The airport has been built by New Zealand. Air New Zealand will fly the route and make the money from that. They will build the hotels and make the money from those. Only the scraps will be left for the people of the Cooks and a few jobs as happy smiling servants of the tourists. The tourist industry could well deepen the dependence of the people of the Islands on resources other than their own, it will do little to cure the basic ills of their economy.

"If you happen to live on a Henry Island — one that supports the governing Cook Islands Party — there are plenty of hand-outs coming your way. New buildings, sealed streets and the trimmings, while over the way the next island, an opposition stronghold can be in dire need of some solid agriculture advice and investment."

This says Tom Davies is one of the biggest faults of the present administration.

Money has been poured into social amenities such as housing, fine buildings, education and health.

But there has been no advance in economic development which would place these amenities on a firmer base, he says.

"We have fine buildings instead of fruit coming out for export. This doesn't build a country."8

The one man committee of inquiry into the activities of Fruit Distributors Ltd should possibly have come up with a more detailed plan for bringing some justice into the pricing of Island produce than just the simple expedient of an increase in the consumer price of the fruit in New Zealand.

If we are serious about assisting the development of the Cooks then the advice and assistance we must give them must be based on their needs. They need to increase the level of efficiency in their agricultural industry, they need to develop work opportunities for their people so that the dis-asterous migration to New Zealand can be halted.

As things presently stand the Cooks are one of New Zealand's private little Bantustans. As they come to New Zealand to take the rough end of the industrial stick they are taking from the Islands their most productive people. Stopping the flow by New Zealand government edict is no answer. Assisting them to live independent of any concerns about New Zealand a shutting off the tap that pays the salaries of the civil servants and the offices that they work in.

If a company such as Fruit Distributors Ltd decided to mechanise the banana industry in the interests of more profitable operations they may well do so at the expense of more jobs.

Only the people of the Islands can help themselves. The best aid we can give is encouragement, technical and capital assistance when they need and never to stand in their way.

The poor of the underdeveloped countries are unimaginably poor. New Zealanders must in time realise that placing money in the Corso collection box is not going to have much to do with the elimination of the degrading poverty that the ordinary people of Africa, Asia and Latin America are subject to. Only the poor through altering the relationship between them and the rich of their own country and between their countries and the rich countries can ever eliminate poverty.

The New Zealand government is beginning to give unprecedented assistance to one country that is attempting to do just that. An increase in our aid to Tanzania is a hopeful sign for those who are committed, to the war on poverty.

However, other New Zealanders have been contributing to people not in power struggling for the same goal. The liberation movements of Indo China and Africa can use our assistance.

8 Tom Davies, Leader of the Cook Islands islanders' Problems, Richard Long, Dominion May 11, 1973.