OUR TONGA LETTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11576, 14 February 1901, Page 3

OUR TONGA LETTER.

[from OUB OWN cobbesfondent.] Nukualofa, February, 1901. ESCAPED A HUERICANE. On Sunday, the 27th ult., we escaped a hurricane by the skin of our teeth. At about noon, it commenced to blow from the north, and by the time the s.s. Rotokino, from Auckland, arrived at three p.m., it was evident that we were to have very bad weather. It was with considerable difficulty* that the mails were brought on shore, for there was already a heavy sea rolling in from the north, and by six o'clock there was a whole gale blowing. The steamer was steaming to her anchors, and a large Tongan schooner, the Taufa, and a very large cutter, dragged their anchors, and although it was dead low water at the time, were speedily thrown up on the reef. The barometer, which had been falling more or less during the whole week, was now very low, standing at 29.25 inches. By ten p.m., the gale moderated, and all danger was past. No damage was done inshore. The cocoanut tree?, perhaps, benefited by the thorough cleaning their tops got, being pretty well cleared of all dead leaves and rubbish. Unfortunately, the storm was not unattended by loss of life, a native being drowned in attempting to reach the King of Tonga's yacht, the Crown, which was moored to one of the buoys. It is feared that there was very bad weather elsewhere, and from the direction of the seas and wind, most probably Fiji suffered. VAVAU VISITED. Your correspondent lately took a trip to Vavau, by the Rotokino, passing through the Haapai group. A good deal of the voyaging in the steamers is done at night, and it was so on this occasion, for leaving Nukualofa at about five p.m. it was soon night after getting through the "passage," off the island of Atata, some 10 or 12 miles distant from Nukualofa. There was a heavy swell on, the result of the previous evening's gale, but the Rotokino is a good seaboat. At early dawn we entered the Haapai group, and rvnning past the various islands, ware, by eight a.m., anchored off Pagai, the principal town on the island of Lifuka. We found that they had had the same gale on the Sunday evening as we had experienced at Tonga, but that no damage had been done, with the exception of the schooner Croydon Lass, which, having dragged her anchor, had grounded in shoal water in the inner harbour, but it was not anticipated that there would be the slightest difficulty in kedging her off into deeper water. We were received here very kindly by Mr. Frederick Watkin, the subcollector, who has been transferred here lately from Nukualofa, and who is very much liked by the traders and others. After spending a pleasant hour with Mr. and Mrs. Watkin, a visit was paid to the Governor of the group, who is married to a sister of Mrs. Rachael Tonga. At a short distance from the residence we were shown the graves of the late Tevita Toga, and of his mother-in-law, Ana Rata. These graves, enclosed with a neat fence, are most beautifully kept, and evidenced the care, respect, and affection of Ana's two daughters, Rachael and Sela, the former the wife of the late Tevita Tonga, and the latter the wife of the present Governor of Haapai, Matealona, the king's uncle. The ornamentation of these graves j was evidently the result of months of painstaking, loving labour. No king or queen's grave in Tonga, is cared for as these two in Haapai are. Our stay at Lifuka was not a lengthy one, for we were off again by two p.m., and by dusk had left the Haapai group behind us. By a little after nine p.m. we were steaming up the harbour of Vavau, but, of course, there was not sufficient light to view and appreciate its splendid beauties, although it v.as easy enough to make out the various islands which partly form it, and with which it is studded, and as we passed the island of Niubabu, your correspondent had a s : vely recollection of his visit to Mariner's Cave, into which, in company with Prince Wellington, he went many years ago. The next morning we discovered that Vavau had escaped the storm which had been experienced in Tonga' and Haapai, the previous Sunday. To a stranger, however, visiting Vavau for the first time, and who had heard nothing of the storm which raged here last April, the land would have appeared to have just experienced a great tempest, for in the first place there was a. large Tongan schooner, the Bamu, at anchor in the harbour, dismasted, and otherwise very much the worse for the tremendous buffetings experienced last year, when she was blown away from this group to Fiji, whence she was only lately towed by one of the Union Steamship Company's steamers. Although 10 months had elapsed since the cyclone, the trees bore strong evidence of the violence of the storm, which it seems was most partial in its work and had done the most damage nearest the ground, for whilst there was not a nut loft on the lowest trees, the taller ones still carried a very fair head of fruit. All over the town were still to be seen huge trees uprooted, and buildings which had been overturned and not yet re-erected. Notably, the two churches, Wesleyan and Free Church, which had cost many thousands of pounds, and at which the late King George Tubou I. had worked in company with Tevita Tonga and others with his own hands. There were some 50 churches destroyed by that hurricane in Vavau. The Government carpenter was still busy with the re-erection of- the Government offices, which had oil been destroyed, the materials scattered over the country. The houses of the natives all bore signs of the storm, nearly every one of them having been rebuilt, partly out of the old materials, whenever it had been possible to discover where they had been blown to. At present there is no business doing in Vavau, nor can there be any improvement in commercial matters until June or July next. At present the people are in a state of famine, a long drought having unfortunately succeeded the hurricane. The yamplanting has proved a failure, and for months the people have been, living on the large roots of the manioc, which grows wild in great quantities. The Tongan Government has, however, lately come to the rescue, and by the s.s. Rotokino forwarded many tons of flour, rice, and sugar, which will be of considerable assistance in helping to bridge over the interval until the first crops come to maturity. A FRENCH MAN-OF-WAR. On Wednesday, January 16, we had a visit from a French man-o'-war, La Zelee, Commander A. Exclmans, from Saigon to Tahiti, via Nu'rnea and Tonga. She stopped at New Caledonia two months for repairs, remained two days . at Tonga to coal, and proceeded on her voyage on the 19th. During the stay of the French vessel, her commander took up warmly M. de Lambert's case, fully agreeing with all that the British Deputy Commissioner had already done. DR. BAKER. Dr. Baker has caused considerable annoyance to the Tongan Government lately, in his attempts to erect a Church of England on land the title to which was disputed. The Government removed all the materials from the ground. In an action which the doctor brought against the Rev. J. B. Watkin, as representing theTongan Free Church in the High Commissioner's Court, for 6000 odd dollars, as due to him as a supernumerary of the church, for 10 years, and which came on for trial last week, it was discovered that the Court had no jurisdiction in the matter. , ■•