Forty Years On The Pacific/Tonga
A Quaint Little Kingdom—Shirley Baker—Socialism,
In Practice
THE little kingdom of Tonga is the one remaining nominally independent kingdom of the Pacific. Within the memory of many who have reached their three score years, Tahiti, Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa and Raratonga have been independent. Now the French tricolor floats over Tahiti, and the American ensign over Hawaii and part of Samoa. Fiji and Raratonga are parts of the British Empire, but Tonga, while under British protection, still flies its own flag. It is a quaint little kingdom.
The Tonga Archipelago consists of three large islands, Tongatabu, Haapai and Vavau, and about a hundred smaller ones, including Niuafoou, famed for the size of its cocoanuts, and Niuatobutabu, sometimes called Keppell's Island. Many of the islands are mere banks of sand and coral, giving foothold to a few palms, and nearly all are on a dead level. Of the few lofty islands, Vavau, at the northern end of the group, is justly celebrated for its beauty and its lovely landlocked harbor, one of the best in the Southern Pacific. All the islands are clothed with rich tropical vegetation, feathered with waving cocoanut palms, and upon any of them the jaded seeker after rest might easily be content to spend the rest of his days —"the world forgetting, by the world forgot"—for Tonga is one of the few places that remain absolutely cut off from the outside world, save for the monthly service provided by the Union Steamship Company and occasional sailing crafts. The Germans before the war were getting a strong grip on the trade.
The government of Tonga is described as a limited monarchy, with the British Consul the power behind the throne. The revenues of the Tongan Islands amount to $250,000 a year, half of which is absorbed in paying salaries to govern the population of 20,000 people. The chief items are: King, $10,000 a year; Premier, $3,000; several cabinet ministers, from $1,000 to $2,500 each; fifty members of Parliament, and a host of civil servants, many of whom are New Zealanders, drawing from $1,000 to $3,000 each, yearly.
The Parliament of Tonga is constituted of "Nobles" and others, in which it follows somewhat on the lines of England. The "Nobles" are the lords of districts whose forebears were powerful chiefs when the king's father conquered the islands, sixty or more years ago. It was not politic to have so many chiefs out against him, so he created them "Nobles," an hereditary title, which carries with it a seat in Parliament, for which they are paid $150 a year.
The prime minister, Tui Yakano, is a fine type of man, shrewd and highly intelligent. The intricate maze of Tongan political affairs a few years ago forms the subject of a most entertaining book, written by Mr. Basil Thomson, who was sent down to Tonga by the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, to endeavor to straighten out things. It is now more than sixty years since the first king obtained complete control, and a few years ago the second monarch was given five minutes by the British commissioner to decide whether he would agree to certain proposals or be summarily deposed. He had sufficient common sense to choose the former alternative, but the inevitable is only postponed. It is commonly held that Great Britain will assume control some day. New Zealand would like to annex the islands. George II, the king, died in 1918 of fatty degeneration of the heart, and his eighteenyear old daughter is now "Queen of Tonga."
Many a quaint story has been told of the way in which the brown kingdom has in its miniature fashion imitated the ways of European monarchies. As an example of their self-imagined importance, it may be mentioned that when the news of the Franco-Prussian War reached the islands, the Tongan Government held a special cabinet meeting and solemnly passed a resolution to observe strict neutrality, and I am told exactly the same procedure was adopted in the case of the recent European War. Think of the difference it would have made, had Tonga, with its standing army of twenty warriors bold, with their rusty muskets and antiquated pieces of cannon, lent their powerful aid to the combatants!
The late Rev. Shirley Baker gave Tonga its constitution, and the great error he made was that of adopting the constitutional methods of great nations, totally unsuited for a mere handful of people, and in the long run bound to lead to difficulties. At one time a Wesleyan Methodist missionary, Mr. Baker, became the first premier and continued to hold the office for many years. At first he was undoubtedly a sincere and sagacious friend of the people, but he became a victim to ambition. He was a sort of Bismarck, whose control grew to be absolute as the faculties of the old king weakened through age. After endless religious and financial troubles had been caused, he was banished from Tonga by a British man-of-war, sent over for the purpose by the Governor of Fiji, Sir John Thurston, and for many years afterward resided in Auckland, New Zealand. He was undoubtedly a man of high attainments, whatever else may be said of him. He invested largely in New Zealand, and later became a large shareholder in the bank of New Zealand. When the bank got into difficulty, Mr. Baker lost $25,000. After a brief period, the bank recovered and paid shareholders and depositors in full.
The Tongan members of Parliament take their business very seriously, and religion and politics get mixed up in a strange way. Every member begins his speech with a scriptural quotation and ends with one, His Majesty setting the example in his speech from the throne. The following was the king's speech at the opening of a session of Tonga's congress:
"My salutation to the Nobles, the Premier and the Representatives. The first thing that it is right we should do is to give thanks and praise to the Lord; and in the rendering of these thanks, who is capable of explanation or who can discuss it and when is the time to speak and tell of the excessive good beyond bounds precious and important that have been rendered by the unforeseen, and also we in Tonga that we should be fortunate and that all should be well with the Tonga Islands, up to to-day who is it from whom? From your people? No! Or even from me? It is not that. Or our combined strength? Who can so much as dream or picture the mountains of strength by which worldly strength depends, such as the possession of extensive countries, and millions of people, and filled with great wealth, also possessed with wisdom and learning. These are the living stones which are the foundation of countries, which stand like great mountains and cannot be overcome.
"But the existence and prosperity of you and I in Tonga this day is from the Lord only. Is this a matter to stint our thanks? Think of the great number of graves, important, and difficult things that have happened within the last year. Some Governments have gone to war, and some countries have been lost, and there have been famines and pestilences. Therefore, when it appears thus that our little group of islands has been brought safely through it all. I say this, and I think you are of the same opinion as I am, there can be no doubt of His condescension to us in Tonga. Yes, be praised. That the promises are still sure.
Continue your journey in peace,
Never fear nor tremble,
Though waves be great and winds high,
He (the Lord) knows the path by which to go.
"May Heaven look down with favor on your Assembly, and guide your efforts. Even so. The Lord be with you. Amen."
The king was a gentleman whom it must have been a pleasure to meet. Biblical allusions oozed from him. Thanks exuded from his very pores. He was said to be extremely shy and retiring, and did not, as a rule, give permission to travelers to view the palace; but it is generally possible to see the royal chapel, which is a handsome building. So, for the delectation of friends in Europe, those who sought the distinction of "having dined with a king" were most likely to be disappointed.
There is no poverty in Tonga, but there is no wealth. The tribal or communal system which has prevailed from time immemorial is altogether opposed to any member of the tribe accumulating property. A man's relations have the right to come and live with him, and if necessity arises, to share what he possesses. It would be the height of meanness on his part to refuse a request from a kinsman. One of the chiefs lost his Tongan wife some few years ago. He married a Samoan of high rank. Ever since, his house has had .constant visitors from her Samoan relatives. They are nearly all related to him, because they are related to her. These Samoans came to Tonga with nothing; they returned with well-stocked sandalwood chests which they had "cadged" from their relative's husband, who would not break Polynesian etiquette by refusal, but preferred to get in debt to the traders!
Tonga presents a most instructive lesson to Socialists. There are to be seen exhibitions of both the strength and the weakness of Socialism. They are a people without poverty, but a people without individualism. There is no place in Tongan Socialism for the man who would seek to rise above his fellows. To those whose ideals of life are realized in short hours of labor, abundance of food and neither poverty nor riches, Tonga should be Utopia.
The Tongans are a big-boned, large-limbed race. They have darker skins than the neighboring islanders, and they surpass these others in intelligence. The consciousness of their superiority is said to affect their tones and even their gait. The relations between the sexes are conspicuously pure.[1] Their girls do not hang about the settlements or congregate on the pier and beaches, as women do in other islands. Many European settlers marry Tongan women. They make excellent cooks and housewives, but throughout their lives they remain mere children in their habits and ideas.
The singing of the Tongans is always a surprise to visitors. The late king was a musical enthusiast. There are some Tongan maidens who have voices of such range that tourists who have heard them, say that if they were trained they would rank among the queens of song. Their singing is all sacred and unaccompanied. It is questionable whether there is a happier, more contented and more law-abiding race on our planet than the Tongans.
The Tongans are very fond of the pleasures of their white brethren, such as cricket and dancing. They attend state balls in gala attire, copying the styles of their white sisters, but when the hours grow late, the women remove their shoes and stockings, and the ball proceeds with renewed vigor.
Early missionary effort in the islands was marked by frequent strife. The Rev. Shirley Baker (Wesleyan), who was the storm center of much of the trouble, got into a dispute with the Roman Catholic missionaries. The French sent a manof-war to Tonga, apologies were made, and friction in that quarter disappeared. Quarrels among the Wesleyan Methodists themselves did not end so happily. Baker and his coworkers had secured a large number of converts in the islands, and had made their branch of the Wesleyan Church rich in both lands and cash. Thousands of pounds were sent by them from Tonga to the Wesleyan body in Sydney. Baker asked for an accounting. This was refused by the Sydney conference, which held that the subscriptions were for missions generally. Baker thereupon set up an independent Wesleyan Church, known as the Tonga Free Church. Most of the native converts followed Baker to the new churches he built, letting the old places of worship fall into disrepair.
Baker had designed a national ensign and the royal standard with three club knives and a dove carrying an olive branch. But the symbol of peace had no soothing effect on the rival church factions. As Baker was driving home one night with his daughter and son, he was ambushed and fired upon by a party of his enemies. Baker was unhurt, but his son's arm was broken and his daughter also wounded. A number of men were arrested and four of them were found guilty and shot.
More or less friction continued for years, and various influences were resorted to by rival branches of the Wesleyan body to win the adherence of the natives.
Volcanoes abound in the Tongan group, and one or more are in a state of eruption. The leaders are said to have made use of this phenomenon to point out that when some particular crater was in eruption, it was a sign of the wrath of Heaven against members of the rival body. Sometimes the eruptions of Niuafoou could be depended upon to shoot forth fire and brimstone pretty regularly, and the Wesleyans claimed that it spoke upon their behalf against the Free Church. Then the Tofua crater would break out, and this was used by the Free Church to prove that the Divine Wrath was turned on the Wesleyans.
Subterranean volcanic eruptions frequently occur in the waters around the Tongan and Samoan Islands. The log of the steamer Ventura in August, 1917, reported passing through a sea of pumice. Captain Dawson stated that pieces of pumice, some as large as a man's body, were sighted floating off Tonga.
Basil Thomson, well-known island administrator, says, "Many people blame Shirley Baker for the deplorable conditions that made the old Wesleyan Church a byword." But he is not alone to blame. The Wesleyans blamed the Catholic priests for assisting the king's enemies to rebellion, so as to justify themselves for abusing them, to half-converted natives. The French priests found a large body of natives unconverted, and entered upon a campaign of missionary labors. Then Mr. Chapman, one of the Wesleyan missionaries, translated at a Fiji meeting some wild statements that Father Chiniquy, a Canadian ex-priest, had published. Two of the priests sued Chapman, and although they lost their case, they had the satisfaction of hearing the Chief Justice of Fiji give Chapman a severe castigation for his action.
The Wesleyans allow a native to become a local preacher without entering the ministry. The white Wesleyan missionaries were paid $1,000 a year, and allowed a wooden house, while the native preachers were only paid $100 a year and had a grass house supplied as a residence. Finally, they rebelled against the distinction.
The architecture of a Tongan church has a distinct character. The building has the oval shape of a native house, and if it is thatched, as it generally is, presents a picturesque appearance. Sometimes a church is fitted with pews, but quite as often there are no seats, the congregation squatting crosslegged on the floor, the men on one side and the women on the other.
- ↑ A fellow traveler. Dr. Alfred Goldsborough Mayor, who knows native life, read this manuscript and wrote: "They have changed since I left." So experiences differ.