pn593. NZ's backfiring aid to Niue: a story from the 1970s

I was in Niue soon after the official opening of Hanan International Airport in 1970, working on  a map of land use and researching emigration at the village level. The opening of the airport did nothing for land use but it sure accelerated emigration from the villages.  

At the same time, the NZ Administration had a development plan based on agriculture. There was no tourism then. There's some now and also some signs of agricultural renewal now that development is in Niuean hands. But this is before the time of my story. 

I'm reminded of Niue by our Pacific Reset programme, that deals with aid and makes no mention of agricultural exports, and recent NZ concessions to Vanuatu to import  —wait for it—50 tonnes of taro and cassava.  They had been lobbying us for years to take some imports.  But all that's another story. Back to Niue.

The NZ head of Agriculture's qualification was that he had previously been a clerk in Levin.  Under his leadership, a large area Niueans referred to as "desert" was ploughed to produce kumara. The result: no exports, more erosion and a larger desert. 

For a while the export of queen bees showed promise. Niue's isolation ensured they were disease free and they could be air freighted in matchboxes. But soon demand and exports fell, and efforts to produce honey got nowhere.  

Passionfruit was also tried; its pulp could make a handy export. The vines were grown at Vaiea government farm and transported in their black plastic bags to the villages.  It was a pity there was no training. Most passionfruit was planted in their plastic bags,  with obvious results. There was also a tree replanting scheme using imported seedlings. No one thought to use local trees.  And so I could go on. 

By now you will have a good idea why NZ aid did little to stimulate local Pacific  economies which would make smaller islands like Niue more self-reliant. For the most part, they became convenient seasonal appendages to the NZ economy, relying heavily on remittances from their families living in  NZ, and most of our aid money was —and is— used to buy food and other imports, mainly from New Zealand.

Last year we imported goods from Niue valued at $370,000 (mainly noni juice, honey, taro and vanilla) and exported $17.2 million worth of goods (mainly petrol, beverages and food) : a trade imbalance of 46 to one.  

In 1971 when I first went to Niue the island had a population of over 5,000. Today there's  a little over 1,600, while well over 20,000 Niueans live in New Zealand, most of them NZ-born 

— all  thanks to skewed development, Hanan International Airport and a clerk from Levin.

-- ACW

RELATED. Rethinking NZ Aid.