ESPECTROSCOPIA DE ABSORCIÓN ATÓMICA

Vother thing i s about the Europeans in Rarotonga who are liv in g Native women and who have begotten children and do not svant to marry these tfotaes. tfhat are we to do with these peop le?^

Is. a ll the speeches Captain Smith was praised for his tact and courtesy. The ariki assured Stout that they had no fau lt to find with him, the only trouble being caused by aliens to our islan d *.**

S tou t's r ep lies to the speakers we*e fa irly noncomraital, partly because he was not fam iliar with some of the issu es raised . lie agreed with them on the need for education and other aspects of training necessary

for successful coa*«ercial en terp rise. He assured them that their representations would receive most careful consideration. Ch special

importance to his lis te n e r s was his statement that the New Zealand Government s t i l l recognised the ariki because they we e ’on the Council* and h is b e lie f that New Zealand was also ’exceedingly desirous that the government o f the isla rd should be maintained’

In his report Stout gave considerable attention to liaori grievances ant; in particular to the degree to which self-government had been eroded. Stoat noted that when the islands were ceded to B ritain , the people had

stated as a condition of cessio « that they should be annexed as 'part and parcel of the B ritish Empire'. The islands were not annexed to New

16 ib id ., p. 19, ftgatangiia Bseetirjg, 20 June 1911, V'aiki. As Maoris were fined for 'co-habitis^g' i t i s apparent that discrim ination Id

u, lying at lea st th is aspect o f j u s t ic e was also relevant to the Co* lairtt. Gudgeon had d elib erately hedged the relevant provisions of the Offences Ordinance, 1907 (Federal Ordinance No. 72 - An Ordinance dealing with certain offences contrary to Public Morality, s.V ) in i t s application to Europeans because he said the . revise was

ecessary to prevent the p olice laying charges on ag##e suspicion. ’A Maori does not mind bei g brought before the Court o; a baseless charge of th is nature, but i f we were to allow th is with Europeans there would be trouble*, ib id ., 1908, A-3, pp« 30-31, Gudgeon to IVrCuwari, 5 Dee. 1907 and enclosure.

17 ’I t i s what we c a ll a work o f shame*, ib id ., 1911, A-3A, pp. 16-17, A eridix K, Getier a 1 C ouncil), 13 une 1911, ’aaro. Pa Ariki raised Smith for doing ’exactly as we want’ and for his im p artiality. Kainuku Ariki compared him i2ore thai favourably with Gudgeon. Smith had

absented him self fie « the meeting so tbat discussion could proceed freely and without the s lig h te s t reserve .

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Zealand o s cession in October 1900, bat became part of New Zealand by virtue of an Order in Council of £3ay 1901 extendi g the boundaries to include them. He thought the people had cot taken any strong exception to th is fact because they treated the Order as made for 'im perial purposes ouly’. However, he said,

they would ha e resented, and they do now resent, the idea that th e ir local government has come to an end, and that they are held subject to the New Zealand P arliam ent.^

The consistency of ariki concern with self-government, for which there seeded wide su port, bad been made clear to Stout cot only from the discussions but also from the resolution, to which he referred, massed by the federal Council in 1908 repudiating the suggestion of representation in the New Zealand "arliament and affirming that the Cook Islands were a sell-governing community under the B ritish Crown. Stout believed that

. . . i f they are to bee ore a self-regardir*g people they ca not be deprived of the control o th e ir local concerns. I f there is ever to be a higher civ iliz atio n amongst the Polynesians they must begin to govern themselves; they must look neither to foreign legislatures nor to foreig o litic ia n s for g u id a n c e .20

Nevertheless, he aside no defin ite recommendations suggesting a realignment of olicy that would give effect to his own b e lie f and ariki wishes. Be did indicate the need for an adequate system of education, for the

control of bush-beer drinking, and for improvements ia the conditions of service o f senior o ffic ia ls i f men of high calibre were to be attra cte d to the islands.

In a separate report of his own preliminary investigation, 'dnldegrave su orted S o u t's recomsendations while stressin g , in p artic u la r, assistance with the fru it trade and the urgent need for a government system of

education - a w itter on which he conceded he had changed his tai; d.^* He recommended also additional nedical assistance, improved steamer services and the secoudmeet of a New Zealand Land Court judge to clear up the

19 ib id ., p. 2

.

JÖ ib id ., p. 3.

21 ib id ., A-3, p. 5, zidegrave to C arro ll, 30 July. Woidegrave had wide ranging respo s ib i liti e s under ttcGovan (Hutchin maintained that he had more to do with the Cook Islands than MeGowav (SSL, Hutchin, 3 May 1912). Fk had previously been convinced by Gudgeon's arguments over the type of education suited to the islands.

backlog of court work.

iTifj Chi el ju stic e ap reared to ha. e no doubt that self-^owr-rjeDt had bee subverted. Nevertheless, his criticism was moderated by his reservations about the a b ility of the Maoris to govern themselves

e ffic ie n tly (he said they had not the same capacity for self-goverraaeot as Englishmen possessed), and by his fa ilu re to advance concrete

suggestions which might have given Maoris practice in the a rt of

yover :.jent he believed they needed. Moreover, to sake self-government once again a r e a lity , g reater powers would have had to be conferred upon

^iaori leaders at the expense of the New Zealand Government and i t s representative; and, unless Federal in stitu tio n s were to be d rastically recoostitated on elective - rin c ip le s, th is meant restoring power to the M lita» i t e t t t to the point. Stout was unwilling, or uoable, to reconiijend eith er course. He thought the Federal Council was no longer

an odetjuate in te r - is la n d forum ard th a t, in any case, continued su er vision was necessary.

Stout s appare t in a b ility to formulate specific proposals for eve«" a modest increase if Maori participation in government was revealed also in his a ttitu d e to the Island Councils. He deplored the possible development ox a situ atio n in which successive Royal Commissions' could be demanded and granted on the basis of complaints made by a few d iss a tis fie d persons. II the councils were tot to have the power of management over 'lo cal een ten s ’ that would allow them to receive and deal with such e o a p la istt,

i t was b etter to have done with them and abolish local goverr-ment altogether, i-äit i f such a course vere adopted, he expected there would be a very

vigorous demand made by the . eople . . . for the severance of the Islands from the control of New Zealand’ . 22

Stout s views were affected by his fa ilu re to grasp that i t was not i^ereiy a uestia of the Councils bei g frustrated in the exercise of th e ir powers by the practice of s e ttle rs appealing direct to New Zealand for redress of alleged in ju s tic e s. The resp o n sib ilitie s which be thought rightly belonged to the cou c ils were in fact held by the Administration. 23

2k M M * 1911. A-3A, p. 2.

23 Tfoe i t a l *»s managed by the Chief Medical Officer who was

res ojtsible to the Resident Commissioner; the drainage of the lagoo

i :volved the allocation of finance which had been taken out of the

iKi is of both the ?ede*al and Island Councils; and ablic service

matters bad also bee removed from the Council against the wishes of

171

iscontented Europeans on Barotonga saw l i t t l e point in addressing th eir grievances to a Council »hieb had l i t t l e power and over which the

Commissioner, «ho maintained that he rupreeeeted their in te r e s ts , presided in his other capacity as head of the Cook Islands Government* The

Commissioner's powers and the kind of eossnunity within which he operated .rere conducive to personal attacks and appeals to outside authority*

The outcome* however, was that the islanders tended to be judged by New Zealana parliamentarians as incapable o f managing a form of s e lf* government over which they had no semblance of control. Even Stout judged theta to have a low capacity for self-government after he had acknowledged that th eir opportunities for participation had been only marginal*

«/aldegrave saw the situ a tio n in ter^s o f a h is to r ic a l and p o litic a l progression typical of countries where 's e ttle d government* superseded the rule of native ch iefs and m issionaries. In the tra n sitio n a l stage, now being experienced, the ch iefs were s t i l l attempting to cling to the shadow of the influence they had once possessed* In what was in e fie c t an elaboration of M ills' view be said:

Every step taken must be te n ta tiv e . The Gover*u»ent has to reconcile the c o n flictin g in te r e sts of the European and the Native in the best way i t can* Time and patience alone w ill solve these d if f ic u lt ie s , but they are not rendered more easy o f solution by th eir removal into the domain of p o lit ic s . New Zealand has undertaken certain r e sp o n s ib ilitie s in connection with the Cook Group. Among these r e sp o n s ib ilitie s i s the

recognition of the right to self-government with the assistance of European administrators. The system has worked as well as might be expected.28

Since the v is it o f the 1903 Parliamentary party which received some very sim ilar representations, far reaching changes had taken place without any sig n ifica n t material b en efits. Of major sig n ifica n ce to the Maoris was not only that th eir leadership and self-regard had been damaged, but

that d esp ite improvements in agriculture inspection and acking, 'we soF-eti *?s receive the same price as when we shipped in the days o f our ignorance’

24 ib id * , A—3 , p,

25 lo c . e i t . 'Address from fclakea Karika and the Ariki family*,