A Bit More Detail

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.