'A PATHETIC ILLUSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 134, 9 June 1938, Page 14

'A PATHETIC ILLUSION.

TONGA'S HAPPINESS.

WORKING OUT THE ANNUAL TAX. t - A correspondent writing from Nukualofa to the editor of the "Auckland Star" says:— .Several correspondents to your estimable daily have recently paid a tribute to a Tonga which has no real existence. "J.C.," whose articles are always worth while, writing in January, says: "A little model of a self-controlled nation, content under the niana of a British protectorate"; while G. Henry and Mr. Brown, in February, wrote extolling the land laws of the little kingdom. By a very pleasing fiction Tonga is supposed to be self-governing, happy and contented. but alas! it is a pathetic illusion which has no existence in reality. Following are extracts from an article by Mr. A. Cowley in "The Pacific Islands Monthly," a journal widely circulated through the Pacific: — "The population of Tongatabu numbers 14.000 (men. women and children). Males number 7200. All males over the age of 16 are subject to annual tax of 30/ per annum, Judgment summonses for non-payment of this tax were issued during the year to the number of thousands, many of which are still lying the office unserved, because there is "jio room* this C'hristmastide. not in the j •Inn.' but in the gaol. Current gossip i says that many have voluntarily pre-j sented themselves to work out their tax. | and have been requested to come later i on, when the gaol is less congested. "Unlike the 'certain rich man' who enlarged his barns, the Tongan Government enlarges its gaols. There are now under construction, or already completed, three large houses to accommodate larger batches of prisoners. Their labour

is to L>e utilised in beautifying the beach front; 36/ is only a trfling amount, but the system of Court fees brings the tax to 52/, and as this very beneficent Government assess the value of their labour at 3d per day, its liquidation entails the labour of over half a year. "From Tongatabu right through to Vavau. the majority of those subject to

this tax are so poor that they cannot raise the small sum, the payment of which would save them from over 200 days of enforced labour. "The present condition of Tonga, the misery, the distress, the poverty, is the logical sequence, the ine-vitable corollary of a 'carefully planned and balanced' budget, which, in a year of disastrous

(hurricane, took from these people £17,534 more than was required." "An editorial note following the article says: We may quote in support of Mr. Cowley some official figures made available to us on February 3. 1938. The number of summonses and commitment warrants on issue in Tongatabu only was 7721. and it was estimated that 6000 of these related to non-payment of poll-tax. On the same date, there were over 15,000 warrants on issue in the Group, but not executed, and about 12,000 of these were for non-payment of tax. As there are only 6000 Tongans liable to tax, it follows that there are very many of the 6000 who have three or four summonses on issue against them."