COOK ISLANDS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19164, 22 November 1927, Page 9

COOK ISLANDS.

♦ FINANCE. FOR EDUCATION NEEDED. [THE I>BBBS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, November 21. Mr F. H. Bakewell, late Inspector of Schools who, under the Department of Education has been visiting the schools of the Cook Group, returned by the Makura to-day. Giving for the most part impressions of his tour made in trading schooners between island and island, Mr Bakewell said he had formed a highly favourable opinion of the native population generally. Whatever degree of sophistication the 'lslanders may have attained through contact with white ; people, they were by nature of a sunny, happy disposition, and very intelligent. The children's education was proceeding along satisfactory lines and though progress may not have been as rapid as some desired, yet as Huxley had said, the characteristics planted in the human protoplasm ages ago are not changed in a generation, not even by Ordera-in-Couneil. Education had been hampered to some extent by lack of funds, as the plantations were only now recovering from the effects of the great cyclone of April, 1926, when the coconut and banana trees were stripped bare and the season's output was destroyed in a few hours. Financial assistance for educational requirements was urgently needed. In that respect the Dominion should remember,that such aid was less a business proposition than it was an Imperial obligation. The Cook Islands were an outpost of tho Empire, and the necessity of the British Dominions of the south to show themselves "all square" to the tremendous changes that another generation would bring to the peoples of the Pacific could not be overlooked. "That these Islanders," said Mr Bakewell. "were no laggards when the Empire called was most clearly evidenced on Armistice Day, when the survivors of the Cook Islands contingentgathered under their flag which was emblazoned with its battle honours, 'Egypt,' 'Ypres,' 'Messines,' 'Passchendacle,' and took part in an impressive ceremony held round the beautifully decorated memorial cross at Avarua. . "These people must not only DC taught to speak English, but to think and act English. Until they have arrived at that stage guidance and material help would be necessary. Lp tin reaent years the 'white mam s burden' in the Cook Group had been taken up muinlv bv the missionaries and the traders. So far as the latter were concerned the business could scarcely have been a very arduous one. In fact, it seemed to have been distinctly profitable." Mr Bakewell stated that there was now a dailv radio service from the Dominion to the Islands.