THE TROUBLES OF TONGAN CHURCHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7303, 15 April 1885, Page 6

THE TROUBLES OF TONGAN CHURCHES.

Me. 1 Henry F. Symonds, Consul and Deputy Commissioner at Tonga, writes :—

Auckland, April 10, 1885.—Sir,— I notice in your Issue of this morning, a letter sent by Mr. Baker, the Premier of Tonga, and purporting to be an account of the present state of affairs in Tonga, is this is quite an ex parte statement, I think it my duty to request your readers to refrain from forming an opinion on the matter until an answer can be sent from Tonga to the statements made in this extraordinary document The Rev. E. E. Crosby writes from Vavau, on the 14th of March, a long letter in answer to a communication which appeared in our columns of January 31., The letter is too long to publish in full, but we give the following portions :—. ■..-.,: -'. - ■'■'. \... <■■ '■-.-.• ' I am away in "Varan at present doing, along with my own work, a certain task which it would have been more proper for the Premier to undertake, viz., the telling the people that having.left the Wesleyan Church, it is not the thing to use the churches, pulp t», etc., for the new church. Your correspondent Informed you that the people in Haabai had given up the churches without a struggle. This is false, for one of the great lights of the new church, Wycliffe by name, has actually made it a matter of boast that he ordered one of our churches to be broken open for use ! And in the island of Ciha the people used our property after I warned them against so doing. In some places, e.g., Togaleleka and Holobeka. they plead Mr. Watkin's orders to use our bells 1 In Vavau there was no little difficulty because of a pulpit which the Kirg had originally given to our fine new church, and which, on the setting up of the new lotu, he took back agal n and carried to the building used for the Free Church. He has refused to have it carried back, at least for the present, and of course the people will justify their continued use of our churches and proSerty, by appealing to the King's action. So far as I now, neither Mr. Baker nor Mr. Watkln has yet spoken out plainly in their great gatherinss, and frankly told the people to let alone all that belongs to the Wesleyan Church, and therefore this nsp esant task has fallen - upon me. I had, perhaps, better substantiate two of my statements in my previous letter. I made the assertion that religion had nothing to do with the putting up this new church. Mr. Baker is my authority, for that statement. He makes no claim that the Free Church will be a more spiritual one than ours, or that it will increase the piety of the people. As for Mr. Watkln, he seems to leave everything to Mr. Baker, and the President has sat in silence in two great gatherings, leaving to the Premier ail the talking and explanations. One is perfectly safe in asserting then that the new church has not been put up because of any superiority from the main npint of "Duty to God." It is, as I said, purely a political move; and those who have read Mr. Baker's charges against Mr. Monlton. and his address in connection therewith, at the Sydney Conference of 1881. will remember how he declares love for Methodism, and objections to MrMoulton on the score of politics only. Another statement was, that it was easier to be a Romanist than a Wesleyan. As you have already heard, every Wesleyan State official has had to do one of two things— the new Church, or lose his position. But it has not been so for the Romanists. At Navutoka, in Tongatabu, when the Free Church was set up, there was a Romanist holding the chief Government position in that town. While all the officials who remained Wesleyans were put down, he remained a Romanist, and was let alone; and yet, we know Rome's teaching on politics ! or, perhaps, our' Protestant Premier doesn't know ? Or, is it that he is afraid of France, not of England ? As regards not paying l those who have been deprived of their Government positions, the law is that they be paid quarterly. But it would be an interesting study to go through our law book and compare some of our Premier's actions therewith. But long as this letter is, I must ask indulgence while I defond myself from the. attack of your too wellinformed correspondent, to whom the possibility of his living in a ass house has not suggested itself. He boasts that in Vavau alone five thousand persons pledged themselves to the new Church, and yet he reproves me in sententious phraseology for having attempted to pledge one. person, and . that one ought to have bten a firm adherent, having been for a long time one of pur native ministers. Bat I venture to assert that in the.eyes of every right-thinking person, those fire thousand pledges are a disgrace to Mr. Baker, and he did not attempt to get them in Tongatabu. 'Here is the- way he got them; he read an extract from a letter of the King, which said in substance," II my family have joined this new. Church;' and do all you, who have love for me, join and let us have one 'religion.'' After reading that Mr. Baker said, "All-who- approve of that, vote."- -What were the people to do ? .. To refrain from voting was to say they did not love the King 1 a . chug* ■ that is being constantly brought against those who still held with the Wesleyan Church. . And when the " young native minister": at Haabai, 'Objecting to such tricky voting (which your correspondent calls, " pledging their adherence to the Free Church !"), attempted to say a few words, Mr. "Bake? told him to "wait a little,'' and took good care that he waited till tits meeting bad been dismissed. Such is one of the in* genious tactics of our Premier!