As per the Te Reo Maori Act. Since 2001, the Cook Islands cook islands run its own foreign and defence policy. In recent decades, the Cook Islands have adopted an increasingly assertive foreign policy, and a Cook Islander, Henry Puna, currently serves as Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum.
With over 168,000 visitors travelling to the islands in 2018, tourism is the country’s main industry, and the leading element of the economy, ahead of offshore banking, pearls, and marine and fruit exports. The British navigator Captain James Cook arrived in 1773 and again in 1777 giving the island of Manuae the name Hervey Island. The Hervey Islands later came to be applied to the entire southern group. The islands were a popular stop in the 19th century for whaling ships from the United States, Britain and Australia. They visited, from at least 1826, to obtain water, food, and firewood. Their favourite islands were Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Mangaia and Penrhyn. Governor Lord Ranfurly reading the annexation proclamation to Queen Makea on 7 October 1900.
The Cook Islands became aligned to the United Kingdom in 1890, largely because of the fear of British residents that France might occupy the islands as it already had Tahiti. The Cook Islands responded to the call for service when World War One began, immediately sending five contingents, close to 500 men, to the war. The island’s young men volunteered at the outbreak of the war to reinforce the Maori Contingents and the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Rifles. A Patriotic Fund was set up very quickly, raising funds to support the war effort.
When the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948 came into effect on 1 January 1949, Cook Islanders who were British subjects automatically gained New Zealand citizenship. On 13 July 2017, the Cook Islands established Marae Moana, making it become the world’s largest protected area by size. In March 2019, it was reported that the Cook Islands had plans to change its name and remove the reference to Captain James Cook in favour of “a title that reflects its ‘Polynesian nature'”. The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific Ocean, north-east of New Zealand, between American Samoa and French Polynesia. The climate is moderate to tropical. The Cook Islands consist of 15 islands and two reefs. Population figures from the 2016 census.
Prime Minister Henry Puna with U. The Cook Islands are a representative democracy with a parliamentary system in an associated state relationship with New Zealand. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The islands are self-governing in “free association” with New Zealand. Under the Cook Islands constitution, New Zealand cannot pass laws for the Cook Islands.