BURIAL IN TONGA

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 101, 2 May 1933, Page 5

BURIAL IN TONGA

NATIVE PRINCESS

BODY ON THE NIAGARA

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, May 1. The Niagara, which arrived from Sydney today, carries the remains of Princess Fusibala of Tonga,- who died in a private hospital in Sydney on April 21. They are being conveyed to' Nukualofa, the Tongan seat of Government, where they will be interred in' the tombs of the kings with nativa pomp and ceremony. Princess Fusibala was the daughter of the late King George II of Tonga, and is a stepsister of the reigning Queen Salote. She was only 20 years of age, and was on a visit to Sydney, when she developed a serious illness from which she did not recover.. Tha body was embalmed in Sydney, and re* poses in a plain wooden coffin. Several Auckland friends of tha royal family of Tonga visited tha liner today, and asked for permission * to view tho coffin. Some, who expressed &. desire to touch the royal remains in the manner adopted by some) Europeans, were reprimanded, it being pointed out to them that the Polynesian custom holds the dead, and all. that surrounds them, sacred or tabu. la Maori the custom is known as tapu. Even wreaths sent by friends of the dead princess were not permitted to lie near the coffin on account of this island custom. They included a floral emblem from the {agents in New: Zealand for the Tongan Government, Messrs. Spedding, Ltd., and another from the Methodist Church, of which Princess Fusibala was a member. . Accompanying the remains to Tonga is the Prince Consort, the Hon. Uiliamo (William) Tugi, the present Premier of Tonga.