About
I began this work in 2006, when June Baudinet asked me to act for her family, Ngāti Raina, and others, to set aside land decisions made by Walter Gudgeon in 1903 and 1908. Ron Crocombe told me that such a challenge would need more historical evidence than had ever been put before a Cook Islands court. This series, and this site, are what came of that advice.
Ross Holmes
Born in Wellington; graduated in law from Victoria University of Wellington in 1971. A barrister and solicitor of the High Courts of the Cook Islands and New Zealand, practising in the Cook Islands since 1983 in land court matters. In April 2012, with co-counsel Kate Davenport, he appeared for the appellants in the first two appeals from the Cook Islands to the Privy Council. His wife Janet Ngatokotoru Holmes was born in Atiu.
Professor Ron Crocombe (died 2009)
Born in Auckland, he went to Rarotonga in 1950 and was Resident Agent on Atiu from 1957. His Land Tenure in the Cook Islands (1964) opened this field and is still a standard text. He was Professor of Pacific Studies at the University of the South Pacific for twenty years. When he died in 2009, the Cook Islands Parliament adjourned for his funeral.
Legal help with land and titles
This site is a research resource and is not legal advice. If you need advice about a land or title matter in the Cook Islands, you can contact Ross Holmes Virtual Lawyers.
Pictures
Every image on this site is captioned and credited. Volume Four cover: Pa Ariki, Queen Makea, Hon C H Mills and Tinomana Ariki, Rarotonga. Photograph by G A Read. Alexander Turnbull Library, PAColl-5584-23.
Have your say
Help us get it right
These books are about your families’ land and history. If you know something they have wrong, or have left out, we want to hear it.
- A correction. A name, a date, a genealogy or a fact in one of the books or reports that is wrong.
- Your family’s kōrero. A tradition, a papa‘anga or the story of a piece of land, as your family tells it.
- A document or photograph. A manuscript, a letter, a minute-book extract or an old photograph. Tell us about it and we will write back.
Every tradition is credited to the family that told it. Nothing you send is published without your permission.
The books
Southern Cook Islands Customary Law, History and Society. Volumes One and Two set out the customary law before Christianity. Volume Three shows how the mission years changed it. Volume Four shows what the courts did with it after 1888.
E-books
The second editions of Volumes One, Two and Three, and the first edition of Volume Four, to read on a phone, tablet or computer. Sold from this site as read-only PDFs, a chapter at a time or by the volume, and delivered by download link the moment you pay.
NZ$57.50 a volume
NZ$50 plus GST. Single chapters NZ$11.50 (NZ$10 plus GST). All four volumes for NZ$201.25 (NZ$175 plus GST).
See the four volumesThe printed set
The hardcover first editions of Volumes One, Two and Three, as a set. Available now.
NZ$100 NZ$150
Opening special. Free courier in New Zealand, or collect in Rarotonga or Auckland.
Buy the printed set