THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2657, 31 December 1915, Page 6

THE WHITE MAN'S BURDEN

IN. THE COOK GROUP. Captain H. Northcroffc, tho retiring Commissioner of the Cook Group, who returned to New Zealand by the Moana, expresses the gravest fears for the physical future of tho Cook islanders. Ho says that leprosy is slowly but surely spreading among them. On the Island of Ponrhyn there wore twelve lepers, and the graves of thirty-four; on Rakabanga nine lepers and eight graves; on Manakiki, eight lepers. , The figures looked small, but then the population was small, which made the- position all the more serious. Ho said, with great frankness, that the position of these islanders, for lack of proper medical supervision, was a disgrace to New Zealand. There was a word in everyday use in the group, the word "Areana," .which meant by-and-bye. There had been too much "Areana" in the Cook Group. . The land question was a continual bug-bear to ail concerned. The natives had been clamouring for the individualising of titles for years, but there, again, it was "Areana," with tho result that industrious natives may work hard to produce good crops, and the lazy ones may come in and claim a share of what the land produces, because they have a communal interest in it. Thero had been a severe drought, the worst for seventeen years, but they were recovering from it. Both from a health and commercial point of view the Group demanded attention, attention that would be well repaid.