Niue, also known as Savage Island, is an island in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Tonga. It was discovered by Captain James Cook in 1774. Its remoteness, as well as cultural and linguistic differences between its Polynesian inhabitants and those of the rest of the Cook Islands, have caused it to be separately administered since 1922. The population of the island continues to (from a peak of 5,200 in 1966 to about 2,100 in 2004), with substantial emigration to New Zealand, 2,400 km to the sout