Title: New Zealand Dependencies and the Development of Autonomy
Abstract: THE PACIFIC DEPENDENCIES under New Zealand control are the Cook Islands, the island of Niue and the mandated islands of Western Samoa. The population in each case is mainly Polynesian and all are closely related by blood to the Maoris of New Zealand, though there has been little contact of importance between the indigenous peoples of the several groups since the time of the Polynesian migrations. For this reason, and because the Maori has abandoned much of his original way of life in a closer assimilation by the numerically overwhelming white immigrants, it is a mistake to regard the problems of the island dependencies as similar to those of the indigenous people on the New Zealand mainland. The indigenous peoples remain numerically much the strongest groups in the dependencies and this, with the more tropical nature of their climate, creates a problem pattern quite different from that of the Maoris of New Zealand. The Cook Islands lie between 8 and 23 degrees south latitude and between 156 and 167 degrees west longitude some 1500 miles from New Zealand. There are two groups within the Cook Islands, usually distinguished as the Southern and the Northern. The latter group is small in size and population, and economically unimportant. The total population of the islands is approximately 14,000 including some 280 non-indigenous peoples. The land area amounts to 64,374 acres of which two islands, Rarotonga (16,500 acres) and Mangaia (17,500 acres) include more than half. The Cook Islands were annexed to New Zealand in 1901, following a period of 13 years during which a Protectorate had been maintained by the British government. The Islanders were willing participants in the arrangement and the government from the first had rested largely on the use of indigenous representatives in a Federal Council and a series of Island Councils. Niue was included with the Cook Islands in the annexation of 1901 but two years later the administration was made entirely separate. The
Publication Year: 1945
Publication Date: 1945-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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