POLITICAL REVIEWS

the deed would supersede. For an offi­cial document, the method of signingwas not rigorous or systematic. Thedeed was between the Crown and iwi,but the six leading signatories are des­ignated Maori negotiators. The iwithat they represented did not appearbeside their names. Six other signaturesappeared without iwi designations.

There were also multiple signings ofthe deed by three signatories. One mansigned twice, once as a negotiator, andonce on behalf of the Tribal Congress.This paralleled the action of Chief TeRauparaha, who signed the originalTreaty ofWaitangi twice. But the deedgoes one better by collecting the signa­tures of two men three times. Onesigned on behalf of his tribe, and onbehalf of two others who were notrepresented. Sir Graham Latimersigned as a Maori negotiator, presidentof the Maori Council, and litigant inthe Maori fisheries claim.

Eighteen signatures were designatedplaintiffs in the fisheries claim. Otherssigned on behalf of waka 'canoe confe­derations', tribal trust boards, andrunanga 'multi-tribal councils'. Twosignatories were wrongly classified asnegotiators. There were twenty-oneillegible signatures, indicating a lack ofprecision in the execution of the deed.In other cases, the names were speci­fied in print script beside the signa­tures. One of the signatories identifiedhimself as Tuwharetoa, a tribe with noaccess to the sea.

Given the flaws identified in thedeed, and minimum time for debatingit on tribal marae, it was not surprisingthat thirteen tribes, including theMoriori of the Chatham Islands, op­posed the deed. They took out an

injunction in the High Court against it.Justice Heron denied the injunction onthe ground that the deed cast obliga­tions only on those who signed it. Thecase went to the Appeal Court where itwas dismissed by Sir Robin Cooke,who ruled that Parliament was free toenact legislation on the lines envisagedin the deed (New Zealand Herald, 4Nov 1992).

Chair of the Tribal Congress Api­rana Mahuika sided with the dissentingtribes. He warned that the issue wouldcome back to haunt the government. Ithappened sooner than expected. SixMaori members of Parliament, two ofthem on the government's side,opposed the Sealord's Settlement Billwhen it was introduced in the house.There was further embarrassmentwhen Tamati Reedy, a member of theTribal Congress, pleaded at the UnitedNations for an investigation into viola­tions of indigenous rights by the NewZealand government.

RANGINUI WALKER

Reference

New Zealand 1992. The Crown's Obliga­tions Under the Treaty of Waitangi. Memo­randum to the Cabinet Strategy Commit­tee, 17 March.

NIUE

The dominance of Niue's politics by SirRobert Rex came to an end with hisdeath on 13 December 1992 after a pro­longed illness. Leader of GovernmentBusiness prior to self-government, heserved as premier from 1974 until hisdeath. He had attended the first meet­ing of the South Pacific Forum in 1971,

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186 THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC. SPRING 1994

as well as many other regional confer­ences.

Tributes came from around thePacific, while Niueans paid their re­spects at an all-night vigil. The statefuneral-Niue's first-was attended byvirtually the entire population of Niue,as well as representatives from NewZealand and Australia. A public holi­day was observed on 18 December, andmemorial services were held at theTown Hall in Auckland, where manyNiueans live, and in Wellington, NewZealand's capital.

Young Vivian, who had served asacting premier during Rex's illness,was elected premier by the Niue As­sembly on 22 December. The opposi­tion declined to put up a candidatewith a general election only twomonths away. The main issues, theeconomy and unemployment, wereones on which the Rex-Vivian govern­ment had experienced setbacks. In lateNovember Vivian had been forced towithdraw a tax proposal that wouldhave added 5 percent to the cost of allgoods and services. The bill, an im­portant part of a package offeringlower income-tax rates as well as in­creased pensions and child benefits,had been presented as a further steptoward restructuring Niue's econ­omy away from dependence on NewZealand aid.

Difficulties had also persisted withNiue's air services. Following the col­lapse of arrangements with Auckland­based Niue Airlines, the governmentwas compelled to charter PolynesianAirlines (at NZ$90,OOO per flight) to flybetween Niue and Auckland. Subse­quently Niue accepted Air Nauru'sproposal of scheduled services to New

Zealand and Fiji, with Polynesian Air­lines providing a link to the CookIslands and Western Samoa (and fromthere to Australia). This arrangementfaltered when Air Nauru's premiereflights were cancelled due to a disputebetween Nauru and Fijian authoritiesover air traffic rights, an impassewhich Vivian claimed had to be solvedby the Fiji and Nauru governments.

The 27 February election, whichbrought the Rex era formally to anend, saw a record number of candi­dates (24) nominated for the six island­wide common roll seats. Nine of thefourteen village constituencies werecontested, including that of PremierVivian, who had run unopposed in theprevious election. Four candidatescompeted for Sir Robert's Alofi Southseat, including the late Premier'syoungest son, John Rex.

The 91 percent voter turnout wasdown slightly from I990, and theresults, particularly for the common­roll seats, showed clear signs of disap­pointment with government perfor­mance. There seemed little doubt thatmany Niueans desired a break with thepolitical past. Sir Robert's widow,Lady Patricia Rex, once the island'shighest vote winner, lost her seat in the2o-member Niue Assembly. Her sonJohn won only I3 percent of the votesin Alofi South. Her eldest son, Robert,narrowly retained his seat.

Others closely associated with theoutgoing government also did poorly.Common-roll member and cabinetminister Fisa Pihigia failed to winreelection. Terry Chapman, secretaryto government for eighteen years andconsidered by some to be a likely pre­mier, was unable to win a seat in the

POLITICAL REVIEWS

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assembly. By contrast, governmentopponents polled well. IndependentO'love Tauveve Jacobsen was re­elected, as was Sani Lakatani, theleader of a faction separate from theRex "establishment." Another memberof Lakatani's Atuhau Tupuhake "TheComing Generation" group, PoniKapaga, also won a common roll seat.

The poll was topped by a politicalnewcomer (543 votes) with a famousname-Michael Jackson-and awidely shared Niuean predicament. Aformer public servant, Jackson hadbeen made redundant as a result ofbudgetary pressures associated withdeclining levels of New Zealand assis­tance. When the government printingoffice was privatized, Jackson lost hisjob but displayed his entrepreneurialskills by leasing the equipment andestablishing himself as the island's onlyprinter.

Another newcomer to the NiueAssembly was Terry Coe, an indepen­dent and the principal of Niue HighSchool. He received the third-highestnumber of votes, gaining a victorywhich represented a new departure forNiue's politics. It was the first time thata palagi 'European' had gained electiveoffice.

The results in the remaining four­teen seats, one for each of Niue's vil­lage constituencies, were also note­worthy. Both Premier Vivian andleadership contender Frank Lui wonreelection, while the Alofi South seatwas taken by Tukala Hekau, an oldadversary only narrowly defeated byRobert Rex three years ago. In anotherconstituency, its size indicative ofNiue's depopulation in recent years,each candidate received forty-six votes.

Following a judicial recount, whichconfirmed the result, the incumbentwas defeated when the election wasdecided by drawing lots.

On 12 March the assembly electedforty-seven-year-old Lui as Niue's thirdpremier in three months. In 1990 hehad lost his cabinet post after failing tooust Sir Robert from office. A memberof the assembly for twenty-seven of thepast thirty years, he defeated Vivian11-9 on the first ballot, and immedi­ately sought to demonstrate his com­mitment to change by the character ofhis cabinet appointments.

Although Lui and Finance MinisterLakatani had served before, the re­maining two positions were allocatedto newcomers. As a result Niue had itsfirst woman minister, Jacobsen, and inCoe its first minister of non-Niueandescent. One experienced former cabi­net minister bypassed by Lui, TamaPosimani, resigned from the assemblyin May, giving the 104 registered votersin his village of Tuapa an opportunityto give a verdict on the new govern­ment's performance. By that stage theLui team was finding progress towardits goals far from straightforward.

The policy of increasing local pro­duction and employment opportunitiesthrough private sector investment,begun under the previous government,was proving difficult to implement.Record shipments of coconuts and taroproduced a glut on the market, de­pressing prices and leading to losses bygrowers, exporters, and distributors.In Maya glove-making factory, oper­ated by a New Zealand company,closed down, with a loss of twenty­three jobs. A privatized sawmill wasalso experiencing difficulties. The eco-

I88 THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC. SPRING I994

nomic problems were having an effecton the government's policies and credi­bility.

Lakitani apologized to the peoplefor the island's economic problems,and acknowledged that the govern­ment lacked the funds needed to meetits social and economic responsibilities.Although the previous year's budgetdeficit had been reduced from US$1million to a projected US$500,000,public servants and old-age pensionerscould not expect to receive a promised12-percent cost-of-living allowanceduring 1993-94. In May the financeminister admitted that further reduc­tions in the size of the public servicewere likely. During the same monthpetrol prices rose by 12 percent, anincrease designed to raise funds toreplace aging power generators, pro­vide for road maintenance, and repaira bulk-fuel depot.

Not surprisingly Lui's first overseasvisit was to New Zealand, where hespoke to Niueans living in Aucklandand encouraged them to return home.Changes to New Zealand legislationmade this a more attractive option, asNiueans returning to the island toretire (after forty or more years in NewZealand) were able (from I July 1993)to receive 100 percent of their NewZealand superannuation benefits. Aspart of a ten-year plan to double Niue'spopulation the premier offered "comehome" incentives for returningNiueans, including renovations to theapproximately 360 empty houses onthe island. More fancifully, Luiappealed to New Zealand pensionersto consider spending their winters onNiue. Although land could not be pur­chased, the premier noted the availabil-

ity of sixty-year leases on bungalows insome villages.

In talks with the New Zealandgovernment, the premier attemptedto avert further aid cuts. New Zea­land agreed to maintain its level ofsupport at NZ$7 million for 1993-94(NZ$5 million in budgetary support,NZ$2 million for special projects), buta 1992-93 budgetary supplement ofNZ$500,000 was not extended foranother year.

Attempts to upgrade Niue's interna­tional status continued. Some of thesewere symbolic, others potentially moresubstantive. New Zealand agreed thatthe office of its representative on Niuewould become a high commission, arank normally reserved for an indepen­dent state which is a member of theCommonwealth. As anticipated by theconstitutional amendment approved in1992, responsibility for the public ser­vice was transferred from New Zea­land to Niue. In their joint statementon the New Zealand-Niue relation­ship (Levine 1993,159-160), the twoparties emphasized that New Zea­land's acceptance of certain defenseand foreign affairs responsibilitiesdid "not confer on the New ZealandGovernment any rights of control,"a point underscored with the visitto Niue in July 1992 of the USSRacine.

There were also some promisingeconomic indicators. In June, agree­ment was reached with Fiji, allowingAir Nauru to carry passengers fromNiue to Fiji on a weekly direct flightaimed at boosting tourism and facili­tating contact with Fiji-based regionalorganizations. Despite uncertaintiesassociated with air services, the tour-

POLITICAL REVIEWS

ism and marketing board claimed thatthe number of visitors was three timesgreater in the first quarter of 1993 thantwelve months earlier. More dramati­cally, the growth in revenue from tour­ism had increased fivefold during theperiod.

There were plans to transform thegovernment administration center intoa shopping complex, a project to befunded by the island's DevelopmentFinance Committee. A television andradio studio was being built with Aus­tralian support, permitting the islandto develop its own broadcasting facili­ties. The first private enterprise news­paper, the Niue Star, was launchedin 1993, backed by printer-publisherMichael Jackson. An initiative bya Catholic priest, Father Glover,developed into a small, environ­mentally friendly industry, as Niueshipped its empty aluminum cans toNew Zealand and its bottles to West­ern Samoa.

In Tuapa, however, the judgment onthe government's efforts was far fromfavorable. The by-election saw anexperienced member of the YoungVivian camp, Fisa Pihigia, win theseat, capitalizing on antigovernmentsentiment stemming largely fromeconomic difficulties. The resultleft the government in a precariousposition, its fragile one-seat majorityjeopardized by unattractive optionsand significant economic con-straints.

STEPHEN LEVINE

Reference

Levine, Stephen. 1993. Political Review:Niue. The Contemporary Pacific 5:158-161.

TOKELAU

Moves toward self-government gath­ered momentum during 1992-93, assteps were taken to introduce cabinet­style political institutions. The August1992 general/ono, held on Atafu,decided to establish a Council of Fai­pule to govern Tokelau when the/onois not in session. While this decisionformally recognized what was alreadytaking place, an entirely new initiative(adopted at the same time) saw theestablishment of a new position, Ulu­0-Tokelau (head of Tokelau), to berotated annually among the three/aipule. As Tokelau's acquisition of theadministrative and political institutionsassociated with a national entitybecomes more complete, New Zealandis expected to take formal actionassigning the powers of its administra­tor to the Council of Faipule and thegeneral/ano.

Nonetheless Tokelau remained onthe United Nations' list of eighteendependencies whose final political sta­tus was still to be determined. In Maythe Council of Faipule stressed onceagain Tokelau's desire to preserve itsclose political relationship with NewZealand. A subsequent statement sentto the UN Committee of Twenty-Four(on decolonization) emphasized Toke­lau's preference for finding its ownsolutions to problems of political, eco­nomic, and social development, onebalancing responsibility for the man­agement of its own affairs with ongo­ing programs of support from NewZealand.

Speaking at a UN-sponsored semi­nar in June in Port Moresby, a NewZealander with considerable experi-