THE COOK GROUP.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2705, 30 August 1894, Page 3

THE COOK GROUP.

When the Richmond left the Raratonga Parliament was still in session, but was expected to dose on the 17th iust. The Bill substituting British coin for the cheap dollar so long in vogue in the islands as the currency has been passed, and comes into force at the end of this year. The second thing of importance done by Parliament was a declaration as to principles of the Maori tenure of land. They are different in respect to ownership, transfer, and capability of being used as a security or seized in payment of debt. Their first charge, is according to Maori law, maintenance of the family and others dependent on the laud they occupy, and nothing can supersede that charge. Nothing exists in writing to show this tenure authoritatively. It would not have been possible to make a land law retrospective in its scope, so a form of declaration was adopted. This matter cannot be too widely made known as affecting those who have dealings with the Cook Islands, and may fancy that the commercial principles which have governed English land laws apply also to those islands. The London Missionary Society is now building at Raratonga a school in which English is to be taught, and children from the other islands are to be trained in it as teachers. In support of the institution the Raratonga Parliament has made a grant of lOOOdol. The coffee season in the Cook group has been a fair one, and planting u extending on all the islandr, the price at present obtainable being considerered remunerative. The banana trade is also assuming large proportions, Auckland being the market to which shipments are aent.