Niue

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Niue (pronounced: "new-eh") is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. It is commonly known as the "Rock of Polynesia". Natives of the island call it "the Rock." Although it is self-governing, it is in free association with New Zealand, meaning that the sovereign in right of New Zealand is also Niue's head of state. Most diplomatic relations are conducted by New Zealand on Niue's behalf. Niue is located 2,400 kilometers northeast of New Zealand in a triangle between Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands.

Contents 1 History 2 Politics 3 Geography 4 Defence and foreign affairs 5 Economy 6 See also 7 For more information 8 External links

[edit] History

Main article: History of Niue

The first European to see Niue was Captain James Cook in 1774. Cook was refused permission to land. Cook dubbed it "Savage Island" because, legend has it, the natives that "greeted" him were painted in what appeared to Cook and his crew to be blood.

The next notable European visitors were from the London Missionary Society, who arrived in 1846. After many years of trying to land a European missionary on Niue, a Niuean named Nukai Peniamina was taken away and trained as a pastor at the Malua Theological College in Samoa. Peniamina returned as a missionary with the help of Toimata Fakafitifonua and was allowed to land in Uluvehi Mutalau. Christianity was first taught to the Mutalau people before it was spread to all the villages on Niue.

Niue was a British protectorate for a time, but the UK's involvement ended in 1901 when New Zealand annexed the island. Independence in the form of self-government was granted by the New Zealand parliament with the 1974 constitution.

In January 2004, Niue was hit by Cyclone Heta, which killed two people, caused extensive damage to the entire island and wiped out most of South Alofi.

Niue has licensed the .nu top-level domain on the Internet to a private company .NU Domain, but the company and the Government of Niue now dispute the amount and type of compensation that Niue receives from the licensor.[1]

[edit] Politics

Main article: Politics of Niue

The Niue Constitution Act vests executive authority in Her Majesty the Queen in Right of New Zealand and the Governor-General of New Zealand. The Niue Constitution specifies that in everyday practice, sovereignty is exercised by the Cabinet of the Premier of Niue and three other ministers. The premier and ministers are members of the Niue Legislative Assembly, the nation's parliament.

The assembly consists of twenty democratically elected members, fourteen of whom are elected by the electors of each village constituencies. The remaining six are elected by all registered voters in all constituencies. Electors must be New Zealand citizens, resident for at least three months, and candidates must have been electors, resident for twelve months. The Speaker is elected by the twenty members. The new Speaker calls for nominations for the Premier; the candidate with most votes from the twenty members is elected. The Premier then selects three other members to form the Cabinet of Ministers, the executive arm of government. The other two organs of government, following the Westminster model, are the Legislative Assembly and the Judiciary. Terms before new elections last three years.

[edit] Geography

Main article: Geography of Niue

See also: List of villages in Niue

Niue is a 269 km² island located in the southern Pacific Ocean, east of Tonga. The geographic coordinates of Niue are 19°03′48″S, 169°52′11″W.

There are three geographically outlying coral reefs within the Exclusive Economic Zone that do not have any land area:

1. Beveridge Reef, at 20°00'S, 167°48'W, 240 km southeast, submerged atoll drying during low tide, 9.5 km North-South, 7.5 km East-West, total area 56 km², no land area, lagoon 11 meters deep
2. Antiope Reef, at 18°15'S, 168°24'W, 180 km southeast, is a circular plateau approximately 400 meters in diameter, with a least depth of 9.5 meters
3. Haran Reef (Harans Reef), at 21°33'S, 168°55'W, reported to break furiously, 294 km southeast
4. Albert Meyer Reef, at 20°53'S, 172°19'W, almost 5 km long and wide, least depth 3 meters, 326 km southwest, not officially claimed by Niue
5. Haymet Rocks, at 26°S, 160°W, 1273 km ESE, existence doubtful

Niue is one of the world's largest coral islands. The terrain of Niue consists of steep limestone cliffs along the coast with a central plateau rising to about 60 metres above sea level. A coral reef surrounds the island, with the only major break in the reef being in the central western coast, close to the capital, Alofi. A notable feature of the island is the number of limestone caves found close to the coast.

The island is roughly oval in shape (a diameter of about 18 kilometers), with two large bays indenting the western coast (Alofi Bay in the center and Avatele Bay in the south). Between these is the promontory of Halagigie Point. A small peninsula, TePāPoint (or Blowhole Point), is located close to the settlement of Avatele in the southwest. Most of the island's population resides close to the west coast, around the capital, and in the northwest.

The island has a tropical climate, with most rainfall occurring between November and April.

Some of the soils on the island are geochemically very unusual. They are extremely highly weathered tropical soils, with high levels of iron and aluminium oxides (oxisol), but as established by the research of New Zealand scientists starting with Sir Ernest Marsden, they contain surprisingly high levels of natural radioactivity. There is almost no uranium, but the radionuclides Th-230 and Pa-231 head the decay chains. This is the same as found naturally on very deep seabeds, but the geochemical evidence suggests that in the case of Niue the origin is extreme weathering of coral and brief sea submergence 120,000 years ago. A process, "endothermal upwelling" in which mild natural volcanic heat entrains deep seawater up through the porous coral may also contribute.

No health effects have been demonstrated and calculations show they would be probably much too low to be detected in the population.

These unusual soils are very rich in phosphate, but it is not accessible to plants, being in the very insoluble form of iron phosphate, or crandallite.

It is thought that rather similar radioactive soils may exist on Lifou and Mare (island) near New Caledonia, and Rennell in the Solomon Islands, but no other locations are known.

[edit] Defence and foreign affairs

Niue has been self-governing, in free association with New Zealand, since 1974. Niue is fully responsible for its internal affairs. Having no military or the resources to maintain a global diplomatic network, New Zealand retains responsibility for the foreign affairs and defence of Niue, but these obligations are only exercised at the request of the government of Niue. The island mainly interacts with the world through its diplomatic mission in Wellington, New Zealand.

Niue is also a member of the South Pacific Forum and a number of regional and international agencies. It is not a member of the United Nations, but is a state party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Ottawa Treaty.

[edit] Economy

Main article: Economy of Niue

Niue's economy is rather small, with a GDP of around $7.6 million estimated in 2000. Most economic activities centers around government, as the Government was traditionally in charge of organising and managing the affairs of a new country since 1974. However Niue has reached a stage where the state must give way to the private sector to be a partner in Niue's long development, there is an ongoing effort to develop the private sector. The Niue Chamber of Commerce is the body representing some of the private businesses on Niue, following Cyclone Heta the Government made a major commitment towards rehabilitating and developing the private sector in Niue. The Government allocated $1 million for the private sector, which was spend on helping businesses devastated by the cyclone, and the construction of the Fonuakula Industrial Park. This industrial park is now completed and some businesses are already operating from it. The Fonuakula Industrial Park is managed by the Niue Business Centre, a quasi Government organisation providing advisory services to the businesses on Niue.

Most Niuean families grow their own food crops for subsistence and some are sold at the Niue Makete in Alofi while some are exported to their families in New Zealand. The Niuean taro is said to be the best taro in the Pacific, the same taro variety known in Samoa as Niue taro and international markets as pink taro. Niue also export taro to the New Zealand market. The Niue taro is a natural variety and are very resistant to pests.

The Niue government and the Reef Group from New Zealand started two joint ventures in 2003 and 2004, involves with the development of the fisheries and noni in Niue. The Niue Fish Processors Ltd (NFP) is a joint venture company processing fresh fish mainly tuna (yellow fin, big eye and albacore) for exports to the overseas markets. NFP operates out of their state of the art fish plant in Amanau Alofi South which completed and opened in October 2004, where they have facilities for freezing fish, blast freezers and ice towers for producing ice. The fish plant is self sufficient, they have their own power generators and mainly use desalinated water. At the moment there are four fishing boats catching fish with more boats expecting to join the fleet soon. Niue is more concern with the sustainability of the industry limiting the number of boats fishing in Niue waters to less than ten at any time. The Niue Noni joint venture operate out of the Vaiea farm, use to be a Government livestock farm, which was later use as a quarantine station for alapacas airlifted from Peru to Australia, scheme have now ceased. The company planted the biggest noni plantation in the southern hemishpere, consisting of over thirty thousand plants. This may be the first time noni has been commercially cultivated in an open field, because noni usually grows in the wild in Niue. There is also a factory at the farm for extracting the juice of the noni which is exported to New Zealand for bottling.

In August 2005, an Australian mining company, Yamarna Goldfields, suggested that Niue might have the world's largest deposit of uranium. It has permission to drill on the island to confirm geological data that suggest the presence of a very large deposit. It will require government permission, however, to convert its prospecting licence to a mining lease. There is an Australian company that have been issued a mineral prospecting license in the early 1970s and is still very active in doing research and collecting data on potential mineral deposits in Niue.

Remittances from Niuean expatriates used to be one of the major sources of foreign exchange in the 1970s and early 1980s. The continuous migration of Niueans to New Zealand, however, has shifted most members of nuclear and extended families to New Zealand, removing the need to send remittances back home. In the late 1990s PFTAC conducted studies on the Niue balance of payments, which confirms that Niueans are receiving little remittances but are sending more monies overseas, mainly for paying imports and education of Niuean students send from home to study in New Zealand education institutions.

Foreign aid, principally from New Zealand, has been the island's principal source of income. Tourism generates some revenue, tourism is one of the three priority sectors (the other two are Fisheries and Agriculture) for economic development in Niue, it will continue to receive direct support from the Government and overseas donor agencies. Air New Zealand is the sole airline serving Niue at the moment, they took over after Polynesian Airlines stopped flying in November 2005, flying into Niue once a week. There is currently a tourism development strategy to increase the number of rooms to cater for more overseas tourists at a sustainable level. Niue is also trying to attract foreign investors to invest in the tourism industry of Niue by offering import and company tax concessions as incentives. The number of tourists visiting Niue is increasing, 2000 - 1939, 2001 - 1446, 2002 - 2084, 2003 - 2706, 2004 - 2550, 2005 - 2793. The main purpose of their visits in 2005 were, holiday (1236), business (664), visiting friends and relatives (591) and other reasons (302). In 2005 tourists came from the following countries: Australia (304), New Zealand(1529), South Pacific (296), Other Pacific (99), USA (136), Canada (45), UK(99), Germany (31), France (37), Other European countries (128), Japan (8) and other Asian countries (36).

Government expenses consistently exceed revenue to a substantial degree, with aid from New Zealand subsidizing public service payrolls. The government also generates some revenue mainly from income tax, import tax and the lease of phone lines. The government briefly flirted with the creation of "offshore banking", but, under pressure from the US Treasury, agreed to end its support for schemes designed to minimize tax in countries like New Zealand. Niue now provides an automated Companies Registration (www.companies.gov.nu), which is administered by the New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development.

Niue's economy suffered from the devastating tropical Cyclone Heta of 2004.

Niue uses the New Zealand dollar.

[edit] See also

• Music of Niue
• Communications in Niue
• Demographics of Niue
• Transportation in Niue

[edit] For more information

• HEKAU, Maihetoe & al., Niue: A History of the Island, Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies (USP) & the government of Niue, 1982 [no ISBN]

[edit] External links

Find more information on Niue by searching Wikipedia's sister projects
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• Niuean Government official site
• Niue Island.nu portal for the people of Niue
• Open Directory Project - Niue directory category
• CIA World Factbook - Niue
• Niue (Seafriends): history, geography, ecology, marine ecology, natural history, fish index, detailed maps (110pp)
• Map of Niue
• Niue National Telecommunications Policy 2003
• .nu domain name registry site
• The Register - Niue is dead! Long live .nu! article about the .nu Internet domain]
• Internet Users Society Niue site
• Environment Department
• InvestNiue
• Niue Global Community
• Niue Business News
• Niue Tourism
• Niue Companies Office
• Niue Constitution Act 1974