"GREATER NEW ZEALAND"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 288, 29 December 1944, Page 12

"GREATER NEW ZEALAND"

Our Place In The Pacitic

THE current visit of the Prime Minister and his party to New Zealand’s "Island Territories" and adjacent groups makes timely this survey of New Zealand’s place in the Pacific, written

for "The Listener" by

A.M.

R.

6¢ BRITISH colony in New Zealand would be the natural master of the Pacific Ocean, the _ irresistible arbiter of all its complicated relations and important interests. Its position would command the Pacific." The words were spoken in the House of Commons exactly 100 years ago by Charles Buller, the friend and inspirer of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, and the man who is often considered the founder of the present British Empire. In similar strain Patrick Mathews, in a book commended by Charles Darwin, wrote somewhat later that "New Zealand with the whole of the Pacific under its lee, will counteract the expanding power of ‘Russia and of the United States in the north." Well, we know our place a good deal ‘better to-day. Even the much reduced aspirations of Seddon only 30 years ago ‘look unrealistically grandiose by 1944. Nevertheless, New Zealand has one foot ‘inside the Pacific door. Mr. Fraser, it is reported, will visit Penrhyn, our most northerly dependency, just nine degrees off the equator. If he went farthest south in his domains, he would reach the Pole. In short, if New Zealand is a long way from being "the irresistible arbiter of the Pacific" envisaged a century ago, we have nevertheless spread ourselves over a mighty big space of sea. x The Cook Islands The Pacific archipelagos’ attachment to outside States has been largely accidental. However, New Zealand is by history and economic interest obviously the "proper guardian for the Cook Islands. Their 15,000 inhabitants (the equivalent of a.fifth Native Electorate) are Maoris and call their language Maori. That is to say, if some original New Zealander goes to Rarotonga, Atiu, or Mangaia and recites his genealogical tree far enough back, he finds it coinciding with that of Island families. But both trees have their roots still further away, in Raiatea near Tahiti, the Polynesian Hawaiki or Homeland. The missionary John Williams heard this on Raiatea in 1822 in the form of a legend that a beautiful island called Raro, once near, had been removed far to the south ("tonga’"’) by the anger of the gods. Seeking this mysterious country Williams discovered or rediscovered every major island in the Cook Group and _ christened them as Christian communities. But only when he had given up hope did he at last see, peak beyond peak, hung with deep green valleys, "the most beautiful island of the Ocean," the centre to-day of our "Island Territories." Marooned on Rarotonga, this ex-clerk, who had never seen a ship built but who seemed able to handle tools, men, languages, ships, and

Polynesian ideas with equal effectiveness, built an 80-foot schooner without so much as a handsaw and sailed her to Tonga and Samoa with a_ stone-age crew who had never before been off their own island. A Problem of Oranges Rarotonga to-day carries 6000 people on its 16,000 acres, practically all fruitgrowers and fishermen. Oranges and orange juice are their main export, followed by bananas and tomatoes, and it is we in New Zealand who buy most. But problems crop up even in this place as near as anywhere to the Pacific Paradise of Romance. During the ’thirties it was price: and accordingly the Internal Marketing Division was set up to (among other things) "stagger" shipments of overseas fruit, thus giving the Islanders some security in their main money income as well as spreading supplies more evenly to our own public. Then the problem became production. Orange trees are not native to the Pacific. Early missionaries introduced them and they ran wild. Now, a century later, the old stocks are deteriorating and new must replace them. Our Government in 1940 began a replanting scheme, setting out one acre per family in 75 trees calculated to produce yearly (continued on next page)

(continued fram previous page) 375 packed cases. However, to-day many orange and banana groves lie idle while their owners make bark mats, hula skirts, necklaces, and pearl-shell brooches to acknowledge America’s sudden discovery of their existence. Our own fruit imports are accordingly halved. But, since the Island price level is up while the New Zealand price level is in our main commodities stabilised, changing craftsmen back to orchardists is no simple business. Monarchy on Tonga Closest of all groups to New Zealand is Tonga. Tasman, making first call here after leaving the Three Kings, contrasted their hospitable inhabitants, "among whom no weapons are seen," with the "assassins" of Murderers’ Bay. However, their alternative name of Friendly Islands rings queerly now it has come out that Cook, who gave it, was set down for massacre by its chiefs at the time of his departure. Envy of his ships was the reason. Indeed, it was desire. for bigger craft that brought war to Tonga some years later. Parties of Tongans became mercenaries to rival Fijian kings in order to acquire big Fiji canoes, and showed off their new skills upon their countrymen when they returned. Hence the first missionaries led a terrible life until the chief of Ha’apai became Christian as George Tubou and later King of All Tonga as George Tubou I. His family continue as the only Methodist monarchs in the world. For Tonga’s early start in civilisation and settled government has kept it independent under a British treaty of pro-tection-the only independent State in the Pacific; and a very pleasant amalgam of primitive and modern democracy it is. All land, for example, is the property of the Crown. On reaching 16 each Tongan gets his share-a town allotment plus 81% acres of bush plantation. He may not sell, lease, or mortgage, but, if he accepts, must keep four acres at least properly farmed. M.P.’s are paid according to the days Parliament sits. There is no public debt. Intrigue on Samoa : When John Williams’s home-built schooner, mistaken for a pirate, arrived off Apia in 1830 a similar future to Tonga’s might have been promised for Samoa. But the descendants of the King Malietoa who welcomed "Viliamu" could not hold the country together. Moreover, the presence of the Deutsche Handels und Plantagen Gesellschaft der Sudsee Inseln zu Hamburg (or, more simply, "the Long-Handle Firm") kept intertribal and even international intrigue boiling continuously until probably only the hurricane of 1889 averted war by destroying six of the seven warships gathered in Apia Harbour-the Calliope alone managing to steam’ out, under Westport coal. The Germans then ruled, sternly but well} until New Zealand arrived in August, 1914. But if we were quick to capture, we were clumsy and slow in learning to administer. Until 1934 or thereabouts we did very little to understand the complicated problems which a century of clash had created. But the last ten years have been different. More recently still American Marines tried weaning the Samoans with wages from banana cultivation to military work and with peasoupel (canned meat) from banana eating to American ways. But the fa’ Samoa or Samoan way of life, which still prohibits

‘trouser-wearing as an apeing of the papelangi (men from heaven, pakehas), is very tenacious. Fiji, the final area which the Prime Minister’s party will visit, is tied to New Zealand not merely by bananas and oranges, but also as our principal source of sugar. Politically we have not had any connection. Indeed, Thakombau, the original "King of the Cannibal Islands," had extraordinary difficulty in finding any takers when, in 1874, he tried to give away his country. Having mortgaged this plum of the Pacific pie for some £9000, he found Britain unwilling to take over the country if the debt went with it, while the United States Government did not even reply to his offer. Incidentally, it is said that when the High Chiefs finally signed the Deed of Cession, unconditionally, many believed Queen Victoria to be a lady of their own colour. They had seen her bronze statue.