AFFAIRS IN TONGA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 74, 29 March 1898, Page 2

AFFAIRS IN TONGA.

INTERVIEW WITH THE BRITISH

CONSUL.

Mr R. B. Leefe, British Consul at Nukualofa, Friendly Islands (Tonga), and Deputy-Commissioner of the Pacific, has been in Auckland since the beginning of February, and has had an enjoyable holiday, in the course of which he has had some good trout fishing at Okoroire. He returns to Tonga by the s.s. Taviuni, leaving here to-morroAV week.

In the course of an interview with a Star reporter, Mr Leefe gave some interesting information respecting affairs in the island kingdom of Tonga. He received news by last mail from Tonga that ' the yonng king has established the Free Church as the State Church in the Friendly Islands. The king's marriage, which has been looked for for a long time past, has not yet taken place, but recently a young lady of rank belonging to the neighbouring island of Niuatobutabu arrived in Tonga, and it is expected that she will shortly be married to the king. Her name is Ofa, which signifies "love" in the Tonga language. Business in Tonga is very dull, Mr Leefe says, owing to the failure of the cocoanut'crop .and the natives consequently having no copra to sell. The hurricane of 1896 and the drought of 1897 were responsible for the poor crop of cocoanuts, hut if there is no hurricane this season in Tonga there should be a splendid yield of cocoanuts, and trade should accordingly revive. According to the census of the population of the Friendly Islands taken last year the native population has increased so much as to make up the 1,000 loss caused by the ravages of the measles epidemic four years ago. Over and above this the population has increased a further 300 or 400, and it is steadily on the increase. The Tongan Government are making

great endeavours to discover pearlshell beds in the group. Pearlshell is a very valuable article of commerce, and no doubt, Mr Leefe says, there is plenty of it in the group.