Land Tenure in the Cook Islands
Early experiments in increasing productivity
Early experiments in increasing productivity
Both the Resident and the government of New Zealand were of the opinion that the indigenous system of land tenure in the Cook Islands was an obstacle to productivity.1 Changes were therefore proposed, as a result of which, it was assumed, increases in agricultural exports would automatically follow.
1 It was New Zealand's ambition that the Cook Islands should become an outlet for her exports as well as a source for her requirements of tropical fruits and raw materials.
Gudgeon was in the unique position of being able to observe the situation at first hand, draft his own plan and legislation, and then put his policy into effect. However, once the Land Court had completed its first year's work it became apparent that the desired increases in productivity were not going to come about as a reaction to changes in tenure alone, and in 1904 Gudgeon requested the New Zealand government that he be granted the power to force the island people to plant their lands.2 Such a step was essential, he felt, since the indigenous people were ‘mere children, and if they are to progress the progression must be forced on them’.3 His request was declined.
1 Gudgeon, New Zealand Illustrated Magazine 2:417. Gudgeon's agrarian policy followed the broad pattern of the thinking of Adam Smith, and was not dissimilar to that of Sir Hubert Murray in Papua, Dr Solf in Western Samoa, Telfer-Campbell in the Gilbert Islands, and other island administrators of that day.
2 Such power had been granted to Dr Solf, the German administrator of Samoa, whose work Gudgeon watched and admired.
3 Gudgeon to Mills, 12.9.1904 NZPP A3 1905. ‘The Polynesian,’ he claimed, ‘will perform no useful act until he is compelled to do so.’ - Gudgeon, New Zealand Illustrated Magazine 2:418.
4 Gudgeon, Te Karere September 1905.
Compulsive pressures were found to be only partially successful and the next step he envisaged was the possibility of some form of financial assistance and skilled advisory staff to encourage Maoris to plant unused land. An element of compulsion was, nevertheless, still present. Proceeding from the doubtful premise that it was ‘the duty of the administration to see that all waste lands are beneficially occupied as a return for the protection afforded to the owners by the British law and mana’, he gave the Maoris three alternatives in respect to their ‘waste’ lands. Firstly, they could lease them to Europeans; secondly, they could accept government ‘aid’ to plant the lands with coconuts; or thirdly, if they were not prepared to accept either of these alternatives, the government threatened to ‘take the land for small plantations under the powers conferred by Section 3 of the Cook and Other Islands Government Act of 1904’.3 While a plan for government aid was outlined, it was never finally drafted or implemented and, as Gudgeon was aware, the New Zealand government of 1906 would neither allow him to force leasing nor to confiscate the land.
1 Te Karere January 1907.
3 Gudgeon, Cook Islands Gazette 1.8.1906.
4 ‘The Unimproved Land Tax Ordinance’ 1906.
Gudgeon was admittedly not able to have all aspects of his reform programme implemented in full, but he did succeed in clothing all the planting lands of Rarotonga and Mauke with registered titles. At the time of his retirement, in a review of his ten years administration of the group, he expressed the opinion that: ‘The first in importance of all the work we have carried to a satisfactory conclusion is the survey and definition of the titles of the lands owned by the natives.’1
1 Gudgeon, Cook Islands Gazette 28.1.1909.