[BRIEF NOTE] Two Niue Notes

The Toronto Star carries in today's edition an interesting article "Tiny island aims to be first non-smoking nation", originally written by Kathy Marks for The Independent, concerning the New Zealand-associated Polynesian island of Niue.

Niue, South Pacific–It is the world's smallest self-governing state, with a population of just 1,400 and few resources other than fish and coconuts. But the South Pacific island of Niue believes it can set an example by becoming the first country in the world to go smoke-free.

There are about 250 smokers on Niue, a speck of coral with a GDP of barely $4,600 per person, and local officials say the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses is placing a heavy strain on the health budget.

Sitaleki Finau, Niue's director of health, is backing a bill to prohibit smoking and the sale of tobacco in public areas and private homes. The bill has been presented to parliament, but the government has not yet signed on. Finau said he expected a ban to face stiff opposition from the tobacco industry and other commercial interests. But he urged MPs to be bold and vote for it.

"Small countries are allowed to be ambitious," he said. "If a small country can do this, then big countries will start thinking. Imagine what that means."

The government would lose revenue from tobacco taxes, but that would be more than offset by savings in the health budget, he said.

[. . .]

No date has been set for a vote, which could be two years away. Niue, 2,200 kilometres northeast of Auckland and 500 kilometres from Tonga, its nearest neighbour, is a former British protectorate. Britain gave it to New Zealand as a reward for the latter's contribution to the Anglo-Boer War, but since 1974 it has been independent "in free association" with Wellington.

Those who live on the island, 100 miles square, regard it as a South Pacific paradise. Beaches are heavenly, crime is non-existent and the plentiful seafood includes crabs so large that people walk them on leashes. The locals serenade each other on guitars while watching tropical sunsets.


Despite all that, everyone is leaving. The population is in steep decline, and some believe it has dropped below a sustainable level.

They aren't joking about that last bit. As Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand notes, emigration of Niueans to New Zealand has taken on astonishing proportions.

When 150 Niuean First World War troops landed for training in Auckland in 1915, they were greeted by the few Niueans who lived there. The 1936 census recorded 54 Niue-born residents in New Zealand. It was around this time that chain migration began, where family members established themselves in New Zealand so that others could follow. By 1943 the population had increased to 200. They grouped around the Auckland suburbs of Freemans Bay, Grey Lynn and Parnell. There, well-dressed men met in hotels to speak their native Niuean and sample the vai mamali (‘smiling water’).

In the First World War, 150 Niueans volunteered for active service. The majority had never been out of the tropics or eaten palagi (western) food. They spoke no English and had never worn shoes. In 1916, after training for three months at Narrow Neck camp in Auckland, they were dispatched to Egypt and France with the New Zealand Māori Contingent. Theirs is not a battlefield story; it is one of body and climate shock – 82% were hospitalised and many died as they had no immunity to European diseases. Returned soldiers had been exposed to a much wider world, and although most settled back on Niue, some grew footloose and migrated.
When tropical cyclones battered Niue in 1959 and 1960, new houses were built with New Zealand aid. But the introduction of modern conveniences changed Niuean attitudes. During the 1960s hundreds turned their backs on villages and bush gardens: ‘whole families flew away, wrote back and encouraged the others to follow’.1 This exodus was fuelled by the opening of Niue’s airport in 1971. And when Niue became self-governing in 1974, many Niueans hurried over, mistakenly thinking that they would no longer be able to enjoy residency rights in New Zealand.

Migration only slowed as numbers on Niue dwindled. The population had peaked at 5,200 in 1966; by 2003 Niue’s government estimated it at 1,700 (others put it as low as 1,300). In contrast, there were 14,424 Niueans in New Zealand in 1991; by 2006 there were 22,476 – 75% were New Zealand born. Niueans represent about 9% of New Zealand’s Pacific population. They rarely return to the atoll, and although they can draw a New Zealand pension in Niue, few take this option.

By 1981, Niueans in New Zealand had come to outnumber Niueans in Niue. This 2008 abstract suggests that three-quarters of all ethnic Niueans in the world now live in New Zealand along with two-thirds of the speakers of the Niuean language, as a simple consequence of the lack of opportunities on Nuie and traditional patterns of movement.

[LINK] "Upscale U.S. retail group buys Hudson's Bay Co."

The Ottawa Citizen is not alone in noting the latest events encountered by the Hudson's Bay Company.

Hudson's Bay Co., the Canadian retailer whose name is synonymous with the country's frontier past, was bought yesterday by the U.S.-based private equity fund that owns the Lord & Taylor department store chain, one of the oldest names in American retailing.

NRDC Equity Partners did not place a value on the deal, but said it would invest $500 million into the combined company, which also owns specialty U.S. retailer Fortunoff and Creative Design Studios.

Founded in 1670, Hudson's Bay Co. is North America's oldest continuously operating company. Its banners include The Bay, Zellers and Home Outfitters, and it has more than 580 stores nationwide.

With yesterday's deal, the combined companies will make up more than $8 billion in retail sales and employ 75,000 employees, NRDC said.

Richard Baker, NRDC's current CEO, who will serve as the head of the new holding company called Hudson's Bay Trading Co., said in an interview that the deal will allow for a huge potential in synergies.

Lord & Taylor could launch 10 to 15 stores in Canada in an effort to bridge the gap between The Bay and the more high-end Holt Renfrew. The stores would be in prime locations, either through existing HBC properties or within flagship Bay stores.

Mr. Baker said the company could take "oversized" Bay locations, such as its 900,000-square-foot store in downtown Toronto, and better utilize the space by putting in a Lord & Taylor or Fortunoff as well.

"Part of the problem The Bay has is they have too many way oversized stores in great markets, and we have the answer, we're going to solve the problem," he said.

I find a certain pathos in the fact that the HBC, at its 19th century peak a great commercial monopoly that acted as the semi-sovereign authority of most of north-central North America, is now just another department store chain facing serious problems only with nice historic blankets.

[URBAN NOTE] More street violence

The people I spoke to were right.

Somebody got shot at the By The Way Cafe in the Annex.

Six gunshots heard at 10:55 pm from outside our window. There's a crowd outside in shock.

Edit: 2 people shot and the ETF just arrived.

By the Way Café, located on 400 Bloor Street West in the middle of The Annex neighbourhood, isn't a place that I think I've ever eaten at, denizen of "Annex boulevardiers, academics and bon vivants bask in the leisurely pace of this quaint corner bistro, pleasantly conversing over Middle Eastern-inspired dishes as the Bloor crowd buzzes by" though it might be. I've certainly passed it innumerable times.

How did I get involved? I was walking west along Bloor Street West when, after I crossed Spadina Avenue, I began to hear sirens and see ambulances and police cars moving about. People were starting to crush together for a view, and I asked some people what had happened. Finally, at the corner of Bloor and Bathurst, I came across two people who saw something.

- They were standing in front of the CIBC [at the corner of Bloor and Bathurst], and they shot a guy in front of the By the Way cafe. He didn't look good, his friend who was holding him was crying.

I'm sure that we'll be hearing more of this later. Things like this just aren't supposed to happen, certainly not in The Annex. At least I was ten minutes too late, this time, to get interviewed by the police.