TELEGRAMS. THE TONGAN TROUBLE. RASH STATEMENTS RESENTED. NEWSPAPER COMMENT. [BY TELEGRAPH SPECIAL TO THE POST.]

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 63, 12 September 1911, Page 3

TELEGRAMS. THE TONGAN TROUBLE. RASH STATEMENTS RESENTED. NEWSPAPER COMMENT. [BY TELEGRAPH SPECIAL TO THE POST.]

AUCKLAND. This Day. Interviewed on the subject of the Tongan trouble and the recent taw case, Toga Maa, Toga. Ka.«t*ha v. the British Consul and two English officiate of the Tongan Government, Captain W. Ros«, who has been engaged in tho Tongan trade fov thirty-five ytxts, &aid : "I am greatly surprised at some of the raeh statements that h.tvo been made- agaiftit the British Consul by certain people during the last few days. As a Tongan merchant, I consider that the result of the division ot' the Court will give a fillip to legitimate commerce, and traders do not consider it as having upset the equilibrium of trade. I think it is a great mistake on the part of the King of Tonga in taking the advice of a solicitor instead of that of his proper adviser, the Consul, whose position is for that purpose. Thfough this misguided step he (the King of Tonga) has given ] the Imperial Government the excuse to nnnes Tonga. In regard to the sug eestion that a representative of the Now Zealand Government should replace the Consul, I can tell you that would not do at all. I know every important chief, and have been tofd by" them tfiai they would fight to the last rather than ! that should occur. They felt that the 1 present system was strong and safe, and the trouble that is occurring at present is only from such people who have exploited the Kautaha in the interests of a few chiefs. The- body ol the people arft quite content, and my own experience of the Dominion's administration of the Island of Nine and' other islands has been such as to make m© dabiotis of a similar trial in a larger grotfp. The traders are quite satisfied, also, under the present administration, and since the High Commissioner deported the native Prime Minister and* put the British Consul in his place the merchant* hit e h*d the protection they never had before." The Star, in dealing with the subject, says j "It seems to us that the course best calculated to secur* justice for th«> natives and restore peace and contentment to Tohga. is to remove them from their present dependence of Fiji, and New Zealand is the centre of British authority with which they could b* most easily associated. Tonga fa the nearest of the Pacific groups to us. Already we control more than half its trade, and the appointment of a Resident Commfssioner from NVw Zealand to watch British interests there would probably meet the requirements of British Imperialism and satisfy th© natives at the same time. Ultimately it may be found advisable for England to anmx Tonga, but in the meantime it ie clear that the present system is liable to intolerable abuses, and the easiest way out of the difficulty would be td give the Tongaiis the measure of independence soetrred to 1 them by the treaty of 1901, and* to leave- the representation of British interests to an officer appointed by the New Zealand Government.^