In Clover.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 62, 4 July 1914, Page 5

In Clover.

HAPPY COOK ISLANDERS. NO ACCOUNTS TO PAY. Whoever called the Cook Islands the "islands of the blest" probably had no intention cf being humorous, says the Raratonga correspondent of the "Lyttelton Times." * But if he referred to the position of the Natives in respect to debts incurred he certainly described the islands well. Clause 2 of the Private Debts Act> 1900, reads as follows:

"A debt incurred after the thirty-first of August, 1900, by any Maori, or by a half-caste who is living among the Maoris, shall not be recoverable by any process of law known in the Cook Islands." In the first place this law was passed to protect the Native from unscrupulous white traders ' who had a habit of getting a Native into their clutches financially and keeping him there. But to-day things are different. The Native is not the innocent victim of any trader, and he knows a thing or two about the law. The consequence is that the person needing protection is not the Native but the white man. One planter whom I met said some very hard things about this particular law. He had given a Native a sum of money to buy fruit for export. The Native was addicted to card playing, lost the money and .went his way. If the planter want* to recover that sum he has a very difficult task ahead. Numerous instances, of a similar character were given and some of a very humorous order. THE SERIOUS SIDE. The matter has a serious side, hewever, and it should receive the attention of the authorities. A bad season comes along and many of the Natives are in temporary need. They go at once to the traders and ask for a tin of meat or biscuits and promise to pay as soon as they can. The trader may have done a great deal of business with the Native in the days gone by, and, in any case, does not wish to see him in actual want, so he gives him the goods. Often that is the end of the transaction, for by no process of the law cam the trader recover his debt.

It has been suggested that the law should' be altered to permit anyone to recover a debt from a Native provided the amount did not exceed £5. This would enable the trader to give the Natives limited credit when they needed it and at the same time it would protect the Native from being duped by anyone, the proposed limit being low. At the present'time the trader is asked to rely entirely upon the word of the Native and in this respeci there are Natives an 4 Natives.

CUNNING OF THE NATIVE.

• The Native knows all about thi* particular law and takes full advantage of it. He even pleads the Private Debts Act when any attempt i« made to collect costs on a civil action. Take the »osi'Wa« «.+ Aitutaki, Mauki and Atiu after the hurricane in January last. The Natives had lost practically everything—houses, crops, food supplies and all. Months had to pass before -the fruit trees could recover,, for the islands were swept bare and the traders had to give many Natives supplies to tide them over the lean months, knowing perfectly well that should the Natives choose to ignore their debts there was nothing 'to make them pay. In some ways this law form* a handicap upon the business section of the community and some compromise on the lines indicated would not be unwelcome in the group.