NEW APPOINTMENT FOR TONGAN CROWN PRINCE

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23881, 25 February 1943, Page 4

NEW APPOINTMENT FOR TONGAN CROWN PRINCE

A PACIFIC PRIME MINISTER

The appointment of Prince Tuboutoa, Crown Prince of Tonga, to the Prime Ministership of the only independent Polynesian Kingdom left in the Pacific is a news item of unusual interest to students of Pacific affairs. . A Bachelor of Arts of the University of Sydney and a qualified barrister, Prince Tuboutoa, without doubt, is well equipped for this important office. Naturally, he lacks experience, and it is admitted that only in Tonga could such an appointment be made. The high chief Ata, whose lineage is as ancient as that of Queen Salote itself. has stepped down from the highest post that his Royal mistress can offer. Ata and Prince Tugi (the Crown Prince’s late father) were close friends, and in his last Cabinet Ata was Minister of Lands. It can be assumed that he will remain at the Prince’s right hand for guidance and counsel. The Queen’s Sons Queen Salote and Prince Tugi (whose union was designed to bring together for the first time in Tongan history the two principal chiefly and religious lines) had three sons. Tuboutoa, born in 1918, is the eldest. Tuku - aho, the second son, a lad of great promise, died a few years ago. Jione Gu Fatafehi, the third son, is studying tropical agriculture in Queensland. Both the elder and younger princes were educated at Newington, their father’s old college, in Sydney. The brothers offer a marked contrast. Both, of course, are veritable young giants physically. But whereas Prince Tuboutoa is outstanding intellectually, Prince Jione has never been over fond of studies. The only examination that he passed with credit as far as I am aware was one for wool-classing. Tonga, of course, boasts no sheep. Prince Jione was for a period tutored by a Methodist Clergyman- in Auckland. While a schoolboy, he was invited on one occasion to visit Princess Te Puea Herangi at Ngaruawahia. The Tongan prince created a splendid impression by appearing in bare feet andwearing a fine Tongan mat. The Waikato people have never forgotten that fact. Tuboutoa, who is renowned for courtesy and manners in keeping with the traditions of his Polynesian ancestry, always dined in dinner-coat and Jslack tie with the Governor of Fiji when on his way back to Tonga from Sydney. But before landing in Nukualofa he, too, wore the appropriate mats of a high chief. , , The Tongan people are deeply attached to both princes. Tuboutoa is reverenced in much the same way that the British people regarded the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) at the height of his popularity. The' principal theme of conversation in Tonga just now, I am told, is his marriage. For some years several leading chiefly families have been competing for the hand of the Heir Apparent. ITie decision will, of course, rest with his mother, the Queen. A young princess of her own line is said to be the favourite. Married for Love However, the prince’s grandfather upset official calculations by marrying for love, and who knows but what Tuboutoa will not follow the example of King George II? „ . The marriage of the Crown PrincePrime Minister will be an event of much concern to all Tongans. For the first time, in Tuboutoa, the lines of the Tui Kanokubolu and the Tui Tonga have been united: he has the illustrious descent of both parents. Queen Salote, who came to the throne at the age of 18 in 1918, had married Prince Uliami Tugi the previous year, and she made her Consort

(Specially written for "The Press” by ERIC RAMSDEN.)

her Premier Prince Tugi planned*!, much care the education of the S™ to the Throne. When he brought S young prince to New Zealand JJ years ago, Tuboutoa tor Tauafahau he was then known by the name of i famous ancestor, King George i J died in 1893 at the age of 96) ' Cn , speak hardly any English. Tongao invariably spoken in the q u L palace. xueet Father and son stayed f or Sn> weeks in Rotorua so that the nS could be familiarised with the Enel tongue. After, a remarkable caresT Newington, where he was prominent' athletics as well as scholastically i went to the University of Sydney r for the war he would now haveh* at Oxford. It was also arranged iS after he had obtained his law deehe would act as associate to one of if Australian judges. A term of admit' trative experience in the Fijian qv Service had also been planned beK he returned to Tonga. But the uiw pected death of his father 18 nJ} ago upset all calculations. ■ ■ “ On the outbreak of war the Croi Prince, who was then preparing forS final law examination, was'anxloM.l return home. The Queen insisted thi he should complete his studies,,; mj the attack by the Japanese' at Fed Harbour, European women k 'TqS were evacuated to the Intetb i Tongatabu, and eventually toTiji uj New Zealand. But the Queen'MiS to leave her people, ,

It has been a keen disappointing i, the new Prime Minister that he vj been unable to continue bis careeti the Bar. From childhood he had look# forward to the day when he wol wear a wig. Prince Tuboutoa once m me that when he was a small boy | Nukualofa a sitting of the SupjW: Court of the Western Pacific wmM in the small town. He happened to* a lawyer from Fiji, replete with and gown, entering the, courthoua Such events are rare in Tonga* M that moment he was determined to« come “learned in the law." He took! studies seriously, and won th? cor mendation of Sir John Peden, other eminent professors in Australi| Britain’s Interest In Tonga The Prince will now have the carel 30,000 of his mother’s subjects. Thl are about 150 islands in the group. ™ people are predominantly Method! and the Queen is the pillar of M Church in her little kingdoms islands are under British protection,] British Consul and Agent keeps] watchful eye on finance and ifeitld affairs. But in all else the Tongwjitf independent. i Within recent years, however, to| has been a small opposition ti existing- state of affairs, which; fra time to time have made itself- hqri Oppositionists want a bigger gey i Tonga’s internal affairs, and 'deck that the present system of govemnei is undemocratic. Too much powt they contend, is in the hands of li nobles. ’ ■ ■

Many problems, both political an| economic, will face the new Prim Minister after the war. Tonga, becaui of its adaptability for/airfields—it hi little high land—and its situatipn iotli Pacific, has assumed increatii strategic importance. It would' seem that the old days hav gone. A new era has opened with .11 new Prime Minister. Those who kno him well realise that the destiny, i Tonga is in capable hands, the him of a keen and progressive Polynesii aristocrat, well equipped, educational and physically, to undertake the-ta to which he has been called at .sych i early age. ,