February 26, 1996

By Michael Field

The lecherous behaviour of a particularly randy British sailor is having unexpected consequences 134 years later for the Cook Islands government which is considering hiring an anthropologist to sort it all out.

The daily Cook Islands News reports there is uproar on Palmerston Atoll, 434 kilometres (269 miles) north-west of the capital island Rarotonga, home to 70 people, most of them named Marsters.

The original William Marsters, a Gloucestershire seaman, settled on the then empty atoll in 1862 with a wife from Penrhyn Island and her two sisters. He created three families and drew up family laws which forbade members of clans marrying within the clan. There are thousands of Marsters now, with most of them living away from Palmerston.

They speak an old world form of English and are strongly loyal to Queen Elizabeth II who they says is a distant relative. Portraits of a young Elizabeth are every where.

Many of the male Marsters wear a distinctive beard and their homes are constructed out of material from nine shipwrecks.

The dispute is a complicated power struggle between the three clans. Each clan sends its two elders to the island council to run the place, but younger generation Marsters are wanting a say.

One elder, William Marsters, has complained the young had ideas that were not good.

"The young people think 'my' land but the word is supposed to be 'our' land," he said.

The growing tensions resulted in Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Henry using the government's solitary police patrol boat to visit Palmerston in a bid to solve the problems, but Reverend Bill Marsters said it the trip was a waste of time and money.

Henry, in a statement, however suggests the problems run deeper than the three families squabbling over power and he wants to bring in an independent anthropologist to solve it.

Oddly though four years ago at the Pacific Leaders Conference in Tahiti Henry was claiming credit for Palmerston.

"Palmerston Islands is a very unique system of government," he told leaders.

"The original William Marsters married, if I can use that phrase, three women and therefore there are three clans of the Marsters' family.

"He was able to create a management system based on family kinship systems and we are now using that system to form local government."

Bill Marsters and the government representative on the island, Jane Dean, a Marsters descendant, are apparently not talking to each other and she has been subjected to threats to have her forcibly removed, the Cook Islands News said.

It said Dean has been accused by some family heads of "being bossy, intimidating and throwing her government weight around".

Henry said an anthropologist would record and establish the traditions and customs of the island and settle the question of who is eligible to settle issues.

It would be a plum assignment for any anthropologist; Palmerston is a little piece of pure Pacific paradise and its people are all English speaking, albeit with a curious old world Gloucestershire accent.

Copyright: Michael Field