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As the economic and social future of the Islands seemed uncertain and overpopulation had already become a problem, the New Zealand Government suggested to the Tokelauans, in 1966, a scheme of progressive resettlement in New Zealand. A limited start was made with single Tokelauans being accepted under Government sponsorship for resettlement in various parts of New Zealand.

Administrator: R. B. Taylor

ASSOCIATED STATE

COOK ISLANDS

The fifteen islands of the Cook Group (Rarotonga, Mangaia, Atiu, Mauke, Mitiaro, Aitutaki, Palmerston Atoll (Avarau), Penrhyn (Tongareva), Suwarrow (Suvorov), Manihiki (Humphrey Island), Rakahanga (Rierson Island), Pukapuka (Danger Islands), Nassau, Manuae and its twin islet Te Au o tu (Hervey Islands) and Takutea) have a total area of approximately 57,000 acres. A census of the Cook Islands taken on 1st September 1966 recorded a total population (exclusive of Niue) of 19,251.

Various islands of the Group were placed under British protection between 1888 and 1901.

Until 1901 British authority was represented by a Resident, who was paid by the Government of New Zealand and reported direct to the Governor. The first British Resident succeeded in 1891 in arranging for the establishment of an Elective Federal Parliament to make laws for the whole Group. Each island, however, continued to enjoy self-government in such purely local affairs as it could properly manage for itself. The Federal Executive Council or Government was composed of the Arikis, who were also the principal landowners. A Supreme Court was established. All laws and administrative acts were subject to the approval of the Resident, who was also a Deputy and Judicial Commissioner for the Western Pacific and Chief Justice of the High Court of the Cook Islands.

In 1900 a petition from leading islanders requested the abolition of the Federal Parliament and the annexation of the islands by New Zealand. An Imperial Order in Council was accordingly made on 13th May 1901, and on 11th June 1901 the Cook Islands were declared to lie within the boundaries of New Zealand. The administration and laws were continued in force subject to the provisions of the Cook Islands Government Act passed in that year.

In 1915 an Act was passed by the New Zealand Parliament consolidating the laws relating to the Cook Islands and Niue Island and providing for the appointment of a member of the Executive Council of New Zealand as the Minister for the Cook Islands charged with the administration of the government of the Islands. By the Cook Islands Amendment Act, 1932, the administration of Niue Island was transferred to the Minister of External Affairs.

The 1915 Act also made provision for the constitution of Island Councils for the establishment of public schools, Courts of Justice, Native Land Courts, etc. The Island Territories Act, 1943, established a Ministry of Island Territories and

charged the Minister with the administration of the government of any territory outside of New Zealand which may at any time be a dependency or mandated territory of New Zealand, or otherwise be under the jurisdiction of the Government or Parliament of New Zealand.

The enactment of the Cook Islands Amendment Act, 1957, marked a major step forward in the constitutional development of the Cook Islands. The most important provision of the Act was the replacement of the Legislative Council by a reconstituted Legislative Assembly of the Cook Islands consisting of fourteen members elected by universal suffrage by the electors of the various islandsseven members elected by the various island councils, one European member and four officials nominated by the Administration. In 1962 the New Zealand Government placed before the Legislative Assembly four possible schemes for political development-complete independence, full internal self-government, integration with New Zealand or ultimate integration into a Polynesian Federation-and asked them to decide which course they would most favour. The Assembly chose full internal self-government with continuing association with New Zealand.

In 1963 three constitutional advisers were appointed to hold discussions with the Assembly on the form of the Cook Islands Constitution, and in November 1964 a draft Constitution, having already been accepted by the Legislative Assembly, was enacted by the New Zealand House of Representatives. In order to put this constitution before the people of the Cook Islands, general elections were held on 20th April 1965 to elect a new Legislative Assembly equipped with a special mandate to accept or decline the constitution. They were conducted in the presence of a United Nations Mission which observed the elections at the invitation of the New Zealand Government.

The elections were won by Mr Albert Henry's Cook Islands Party, which gained fourteen of the twenty-two seats in the new Legislative Council. The Cook Islands Party had already accepted the principle of full internal selfgovernment and continuing association with New Zealand. Mr Albert Henry informed the New Zealand Government, however, that his party wished to propose a number of amendments to the draft constitution. The most important of these were:

(a) An amendment to the existing electoral regulations on residential qualifications. This enabled Mr Henry (who had not been eligible to stand at the elections) to be elected to the Assembly in a by-election; and

(b) An amendment to form a House of Arikis or Upper House on which the Arikis from all the islands would be represented.

The Cooks Islands Constitution Amendment Act was passed by the New Zealand House of Representatives in May 1965, and the new Constitution proclaimed on 8th August 1965.

The Cook Islands now have complete control of their own affairs in free association with New Zealand, but with the added special feature that they can at any time move into full independence by a unilateral act if they so wish. New Zealand will continue to be responsible for external affairs and defence while the Cook Islands retains this special relationship.

At a General Election held in May 1968, Mr Henry's Cook Island Party won 16 seats against the United Cook Islanders' Party's 6.

Prime Minister: Mr Albert Henry

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FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

IGERIA, which takes its name from the Niger, or 'great', river which flows through it to the sea, is situated on the west coast of Africa on the shores of the Gulf of Guinea and lies between 4° and 14° N. latitude and 2° and 15° E. longitude. It is bounded on the west by Dahomey, on the north by Niger and on the east by the Republic of Cameroun. It includes part of Lake Chad on the north-east. The total area is 356,669 square miles. It is 650 miles from the coast to the farthest point on the northern border and its greatest width is 700 miles. It is not a mountainous country: the only high ground is the plateau area near Jos and along the eastern border. There is one other navigable river of importance, apart from the Niger, the River Benue. There are two wellmarked seasons, the rains lasting from April to October, and the dry season from November to March. Temperatures at the coast seldom rise above 32°C (90°F) but the humidity is high. Farther north the climate is drier and the temperature range greater, the extremes being 43°C (110°F) and 10°C (50°F) although it is occasionally lower in certain areas.

Nigeria is the most populous state in Africa. At the time of the 1952-53 census the population stood at 30,417,000. The census held in late 1963 recorded a total population of 55,654,000.

The main tribal groups are Fulani, Hausa, Yoruba and Ibo. The non-African population does not exceed 30,000. The principal languages in Nigeria are English, Hausa, Yoruba and Ibo. Primary education is not yet universal. In 1966 there were 2,907,745 primary pupils and 132,912 pupils in secondary schools and colleges.

Over half the population are Muslims, these being concentrated in the north and west. In the southern areas in particular there are many Christians. The capital of the Republic is Lagos with an estimated population in 1967 of 680,000. Lagos also acts as capital of the Lagos State.

The principal seaports are served by a number of shipping lines including the Nigerian National Shipping Lines, Elder Dempster and Palm Lines. Several international airlines operate frequent services to the main international airports at Kano and Lagos. Regular internal air services by Nigeria Airways connect these two airports with Ibadan, Benin, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Jos, Kaduna, Manduguri, Sokoto, Yola and Warri. Passenger and freight services are operated by the Nigeria Railway Corporation over a total of 2,178 route miles.

The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, a statutory body, covers the whole of the Republic through a chain of radio stations. In Lagos State the N.B.C. Television Service runs in association with it. There are separate State-owned companies for sound and television broadcasting in Kaduna (BCNN), Ibadan (WNBS/WNTV) and, before the civil war. Enugu (ENBS/ENTV). The MidWestern State plans to establish its own radio and television station in Benin. A new and more comprehensive national radio network was approved in principle by Federal and State Information Commissioners in November, 1968.

Nigeria has a predominantly agricultural economy: farming, forestry, and fishing activities contribute over half of the country's gross domestic product but mining and industry are gaining in importance. The export structure is very diversified. Mineral oil forms the largest item, but cocoa, palm products, groundnut produce, tin, rubber, timber, cotton and hides and skins are also important.

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Overseas investment in Nigeria, of which over half was British stood at over £N.400 million at the end of 1966, and heavy investment in the oil sector has continued despite the war. Private investment grew much faster than public investment throughout the period from Independence to the crisis.

In 1966/67, the last year before the war, the combined estimated revenues of the Federal and Regional (now State) Governments totalled £N.273-7 million compared with an estimated total expenditure of £N.265.0 million.

The hostilities between the Federal Government and the secessionists in the East, which began in July 1967 and are still continuing (August 1969) imposed a check on the progress of the economy which had earlier been growing at the rate of 5 per cent per annum. The industrial output of the Eastern States was reduced to a low level and the temporary dislocation of petroleum production contributed towards a balance of payments crisis which made restrictions on imports and on the outflow of foreign exchange necessary. With the resumption of onshore petroleum production in late 1968, there were signs that the immediate critical situation was easing and that rapid economic growth could once again be expected.

Meanwhile large-scale international efforts were being made to provide relief supplies for refugees on both sides of the front: over two million people were in receipt of such assistance in early 1969.

A four-year National Reconstruction and Development Plan, involving investment of over £N.1,100 million has been announced following the end of the period of the 1962-68 National Development Plan. The Kainji hydro-electric scheme, the most ambitious of the many development projects undertaken in the 1962-68 Plan, was commissioned on 15th February, 1969. The scheme is supplying in the initial stage 320 megawatts to the national grid. By regulating the flow of the Niger the dam allows the development of navigation along the river, in particular extending the present shipping season downstream of Kainji. The lake formed by the reservoir will enable an important fishing industry to be established. Work has begun on the third phase of the National Telecommunications Plan which will provide a nation-wide microwave network. A British interest-free loan of £10.5 million covers most of the offshore costs. Britain has also contributed over £1 million to the immediate task of reconstruction.

HISTORY

The Nigerian plateau in the area around Jos is now regarded as a focal point in early Nigerian history; here was a meeting point for influences from the upper Niger valley, where agriculture had been independently invented around 5000 B.C., and from the civilization of Egypt. We know that the Plateau people practised agriculture by 3000 B.C., and it would seem that increased food supplies allowed the development of more complex societies which pushed their way southward. The Bantu, who subsequently conquered most of eastern and southern Africa with their iron weapons, are thought by some authorities to have originated on the Plateau. By 500 B.C. the remarkable Nok culture had emerged, controlling an area around the Plateau of some 400 square miles, a culture characterized by terra-cotta heads and figurines of a high technical and artistic standard, which reveal an agricultural people, who knew iron-working and had developed a specialised society. The culture lasted for some seven centuries, spread southwards, and influenced the art of Benin and Ife.

Nigerian history is characterised by this pressure of northern peoples on the southern forest belt. The northerners exploited geographical advantages, for their climate allowed them to domesticate cattle and horses and grow cotton and cereals, so that textiles, leather-working and smithing were able to develop. In the southern tropical forest agriculture depended on root crops and palm products until the later entry of Indonesian and American crops. The north was also in contact with Egypt and North Africa, and strong political state systems, often based on the concept of divine kingship, emerged early in the Christian era. Two main systems emerged in the north. In the area around Lake Chad the shadowy Zaghawa kingdom had by the eleventh century become the Kanem-Bornu empire, the Bornu section of which later became a separate state. The Hausa Bokwoi dominated the area further west as a loose confederation of several states which probably originated at different times between A.D. 100 and the tenth century. These states dominated the politics of the north until the nineteenth century. Both states were profoundly, though never completely, influenced by Islam, brought in by desert traders and later by Fulani immigrants. Both developed extensive foreign trade across the Sahara in leather goods, salt, cloth, slaves and gold. They were intermittently torn by internal civil wars, they fought each other, were invaded from outside (parts of Hausaland were forced to submit to the Songhai empire in the sixteenth century) and menaced by the Jukun state, centred upon Ibi on the River Benue, during the sixteenth century.

As yet little is known of events in the south in mediaeval times. Of the Ibo, the dominant linguistic group in Eastern Nigeria, we know little beyond shadowy legends indicating struggles with invaders from north and west. Though without centralized monarchical institutions, the Ibo survived and multiplied, developing agriculture to support a dense population which by the eighteenth century became a magnet for slave traders. Rather more is known of the Yoruba, the predominant group in the Western State. Their cultural history originated in the founding before A.D. 1000 of Ife, still the spiritual centre of Yorubaland, despite the fact that its political control was eclipsed in the fourteenth century by Oyo, which was in turn displaced by Ibadan and Abeokuta in the nineteenth century. The origins of Benin are also connected with Ife, and the claim of both upon the attention of historians lies in their magnificent sculpture, now regarded by some authorities as a major contribution to mankind's artistic spirit; its humanism and naturalism reflects a highly developed and sophisticated society. The bronze sculptures demonstrate great technical aptitude by the mastery of the complicated lost 'wax' process of casting.

Contact with Europe began in the fifteenth century with the Portuguese, and at first this contact seemed likely to have profound results, for it brought missionaries to Benin, who introduced the art of writing, and made converts among the royal family. Benin's territory expanded when the lucrative spice trade allowed her to purchase firearms, and, after the discovery of America, new plants revolutionised the diet of all the forest peoples. But by the seventeenth century the Portuguese began to lose interest, developing the richer trade of the Indian Ocean. Moreover, with the development of plantations in America and the West Indies, the demand for slaves from West Africa rapidly began to overshadow all other activities. The effects of the slave trade were overwhelmingly negative, for it could easily be developed from existing forms of slavery, using African middlemen. It needed no technical innovations, and as the slaves were

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