ABSTRACT
Compared with their near neighbours in the South Pacific, both Australia and New Zealand are highly urbanized, ‘western’, wealthy, post-industrial countries. Although New Zealand has only three million people, its population is large in comparison with the South Pacific Island populations. It is, for example, five times larger than that of Fiji, larger than that of Niue, Tokelau or Tuvalu. The per capita income of New Zealand is more than five times that of Fiji and fifteen times that of Tonga. Remittances make up a substantial proportion of foreign exchange earnings in all of these countries including Fiji. If the remittances sent home by Tongans, Samoans, Cook Islanders, Niueans, Tokelauans and Tuvaluans were not included in the islands’ national income, then the gaping disparity between metropolitan New Zealand and these island countries would be even wider.
