Talk:Rarotonga

List of Districts
Do the numbers in the list of administrative districts have an official meaning? If not, the list should probably be made an unordered one. Also it's not clear to me why most of the items are hyphenated pairs. Are the names themselves hyphenated or does the second part mean something else? Electrolite 03:24, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I think there is a confusion between district, constituency, vaka and tapere or administrative and traditional subdivisions. But it is true that it is not always clear. There are five administrative districts and 10 constituencies (see constitution of the Cook Islands http://www.paclii.org/ck/legis/num_act/cotci327/)
 * * Avarua district (Northern part of the island) represents 4 constituencies (Nikao-Panama; Avatiu-Ruatonga; Takuvaine-Tutakimoa; Tupapa-Maraerenga)
 * * Matavera district also called Rangiatea (NE) represents 1 constituency (Matavera constituency)
 * * Ngatangiia district (SE) represents represents 1 constituency  (Ngatangiia constituency)
 * * Takitumu district (S) represents 1 constituency which is called Titikaveka constituency.
 * * Arorangi district (W) represents 3 constituencies called Murienua, Akaoa, Ruaau.


 * The traditional and land organisation is a bit different. There are 3 vaka (tribes). Each vaka is subdivised in tapere sometimes also called sub-districts or sub-tribes.
 * * The tribe of Te au o Tonga (Avarua administrative district) with three arikis :  Makea Nui, Makea Karika, Makea Vakatini and 19 tapere according to the Land Court.
 * * The tribe of Takitumu (Matavera, Ngatangiia and Takitumu districts) with two arikis :  Pa Ariki and Kainuku Ariki (27 tapere).
 * * The tribe of Puaikura (Arorangi district) with one ariki : Tinomana Ariki (9 tapere). The border between Te au o Tonga and Puaikura is the famous "blackrock"
 * I hope it will help. Nevers

I believe this was formerly known as Goodenough's Island. How did it come by that name? Drutt 06:30, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Probably named after James Graham Goodenough, just like Goodenough Island in Papua New Guinea. He was killed by local people apparently somewhere in New Hebrides in 1875:, . – Sadalmelik 14:27, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Link removal
I have removed a couple of external links that seem primarily commercial, or moderately commercial and present little additional info. Review of other links by article editors would be appreciated. Jackollie (talk) 20:33, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

No history, economy, or demography section?
Should there be sections on the history, economy, demography or other such information on this page? Much is also covered in the Cook Islands article but I think that at least some history should be covered and maybe some other brief comments with a "See Also" link. --Bruce Hall (talk) 06:43, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

Rarotonga Steam Railway
I am looking for a photograph of the Rarotonga Steam Railway. --NearEMPTiness (talk) 21:16, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Cook Island Legend
Cook Island Drumming Legend Long Long Time Ago the two sister islands Rarotonga and Raiatea had a battle and to see which island was best at drumming. Rarotonga won the battle and they partied and and slept. All drummers from Raiatea sailed of to Rarotonga and killed the drummers from Rarotonga. So the gods seperated them forever — Preceding unsigned comment added by MT100 (talk • contribs) 12:20, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

Cite spam of Andrew Crowe book
The source Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Māori and their Polynesian Ancestors, by Andrew Crowe has been repeatedly and persistently getting inserted into various articles and the initial insertion consistently comes from a Auckland, NZ dynamic IP 118.93.xxx.xxx The obvious concern is if the reliability and viewpoint of encyclopedia articles possibly being compromised by someone more focused on promoting their book. Can someone comment if this source is actually authoritative on the matter it is being used as a reference for? Graywalls (talk) 19:13, 18 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Crowe gets some coverage in NZ media, and this book,, is held by many (179?) libraries. OCLC gives University of Hawaii Press as publisher. So prima facie, it seems OK. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 04:27, 19 August 2020 (UTC)
 * So this maybe more of a WP:NPOV matter where the proponent of his views/himself are pushing to include his perspectives. Someone with 118.93.xxx.xxx (the last two segments regularly changing) have been repeatedly inserting Crowe sources and the same have been removing maintenance template challenging reliability. Graywalls (talk) 04:43, 19 August 2020 (UTC)
 * I've been tempted to go to the library and check (and include a quote in the ref if I find one), but can't ATM due to lockdown. The book doesn't obviously seem unreliable, so maybe the best way of dealing with it is just to remove all the URLs they keep posting (which do seem to be pure self-promotion)? --IdiotSavant (talk) 06:04, 19 August 2020 (UTC)
 * The URL is definitely spam; I think they have all been removed. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 06:11, 19 August 2020 (UTC)
 * I don't think it's just the URL. Previously, the 118.93.x was inserting goodreads; then in the latest endeavor, they've been replacing it with academia.edu link to the same thing. The exact year of settlement at Rarotonga isn't determined; and different sources vary in what they estimate. So I'm wondering if this could be an attempt to claim the dominant status of authoritative status? It's always the same 118.93.x initially inserting this source.
 * Special:Diff/891114786 @ Marquesas Islands - same guy 118.93.4.147 Special:Diff/970378012 118.93.6.150 updating URL.
 * Special:Diff/949008332 @ Entada phaseoloides 118.93.28.12 Special:Diff/960634217 @ same article. 118.93.25.7 updating the URL.
 * you see the pattern?
 * Graywalls (talk) 16:37, 19 August 2020 (UTC)
 * The latter seems to be inserting trivia just as an excuse to include a reference. As for the first example, can we look for alternative refs so we cna just kill it? I've been trying to do that for this article, and haven't found a good one yet. --IdiotSavant (talk) 01:46, 20 August 2020 (UTC)
 * It's not just these two IPs. The Andrew Crowe matters involving 118.93.xxx.xxx has been going on for many months, and I'm thinking someone's trying to push something to get their academic POV onto Wiki. Graywalls (talk) 04:28, 20 August 2020 (UTC)
 * , if you check out https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=insource%3A%22Achievements+of+M%C4%81ori%22&title=Special%3ASearch&go=Go&ns0=1 then look at the edit history, you'll see it was all inserted in them by 118.93.xxx.xxx Graywalls (talk) 11:02, 17 October 2020 (UTC)