Cook Islands land claim is rejected

A century-old dispute over a parcel of land on the Cook Islands will never be laid to rest, lawyers said yesterday as the Privy Council rejected an appeal.

June Baudinet, 67, insists the 53-acre plot on the former British protectorate in the South Pacific belonged to her ancestors. It was handed to the Queen of the Makea Nu people in 1903 in an order that said "life interest only" – meaning it would transfer back on death. But those words were later crossed out.