THE TROUBLES IN TONGA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1847, 15 April 1887, Page 13

THE TROUBLES IN TONGA.

The following copy of a letter to the editor of the Fiji Times has: been forwarded to us with a request to publish it :— • VavaUjFiiendly Islands, March 9, 1887. During the past month we have but little news from Tongatabu. About a month since the. Taviuni brought a letter from the Torigan Government ip the authorities, here, containing instructions to flog and torture the Wesleyans until such time as they should 'turn oyer to the so-called Free Churph, over which the angelic Mr Watkin presides. These instructions have been carried out with the greatest barbarity. . The new series of floggings under these orders commenced on the 2nd inst. ~ . As soon as the early service in 'the Free Church was over, about 9 a.m., the authorities proceeded to their works.- One unfortunate lad from Mr Moulton's college, a son of one of the oldest Wesleyan ministers, lately deceased, was asked whether he would turn. Declining, he received 72 lashes across his back. The seventy-; third was given to him quite; unexpectedly aoross the chest, and caused him to call out on the Lord Jesus for mercy. The seventy-fourth he received across his face, damaging one of his, eyes, and the seventy-fifth and last across his head and neck. This lad's name is Jione Havea. An old lady was now interrogated,' and as she refused to enter Watkin's church, she also was ! brutally flogged.. Nature,howeVer, came to her rescue, as she fainted after the third lash, and the wretches could do no more to her ; she lay senseless on the ground. Her - name [is Mela Tat. With two other Englishmen I went shortly after the .thrashing > to see these two cases, and we found the laid in & fearful state; hig back was, just one mass of dark, livid bruises, and his head injured. - The woman's .back appeared as if she had received more than a do, gen lashes { an.^ no woofer, for

both these persons were flogged with six ropes' ends, somewhat thicker and, harder than ordinary clothes-line. > Each lash .was thus equal to six, and the blows* were given by a powerful jnan, with the force of which he was capable, raising himself on tiptoe- the better to deliver this cruel flagellation. Many others have been thrashed and brutally illused. The foregoing cases are fair-samples of the whole. Such vicious and barbarous threats have been used towards some of the Wesleyan ministers that for tbe time- they have been compelled to compromise and give in their unwilling adherence to Baker's church. --* Yesterday ' the Fajaogongo, a native vessel belonging to Maetu^ chief of Nenafoou, put in here on her way to your port — Suva. Several of the English residents went on board, with Maetu's permission, and found that the report that " the Rev. David Tonga, wife, and sisters were on their way to" Fiji, banished on account of- their religion by King George," instigated thereto by Messrs Baker and Watkin, was per-fectly-true. With them we found many other Wesleyans, some of them ministers, in all some 21 souls ; most of. these people had been most brutally ill-treated in 1 Haabai, where they had been picked up by the king's orders. They had all of them been shut up in prison for a week. The prison was but a small room, and into this 29 of these poor people were packed. At night, with the two windows shut, the state of these victims may;be conceived — unable to get a breath of fresh air, but obliged to remain during the long hours of darkness in a thoroughly polluted and vitiated atmosphere. It may be added that these people were kept in this place for the whole week without the Government providing them with a single meal. Charlotte, the King's own danghter, is with these martyrs, and has, indeed, behaved nobly under all the severe .trials of this persecution. We hear of the greatest atrocities haying been committed both in Tonga and Haabai. Heniti Tahii, a most- promising young minister, who will be remembered by the good people of Sydney as having accompanied the Rev. J. S. Moulton to the conference last year, and as having delivered many a stirring address, has been all but butchered, receiving a bayonet thrust in the side, and having been fearfully beaten about the head with a musket. The tyrant of Tonga still has many men — Wesleyans — ironed and in prison ; and only awaiting her Britannic Majesty's •permission to shoot them. He has, as you have already been informed, but lately shot six ; some of them being quite innocent of the crime with which they were charged. Bat two of them had formerly been taken under the protection of the British Government, and Mr Baker had been compelled to liberate them. Now he has prer vented all aid from reaching them, by shooting them. The Wesleyans in Tonga, after the arrival of the'new Vice-consul, B. Leefe, Esq., with the message— supposed to come drect from Queen Victoria — that the King of Tonga « might do just as he pleased with his subjects," met with the most frightful treatment ; and those who through it all remained faithful to the Wesleyan Church have been shipped off to Fiji, ' and are now most likely with you in Suya,f or they left Tonga now nearly two weeks since in the Malekula. Under Sir Arthur • Gordon or Sir Wm. Dcs Vceux these atrooities would never have been permitted or committed, and all Europeans in these islands are perplexed as to how any British consul could have been so unguarded as, under the circumstances, to make use of such an expression to the King as the above. Perhaps it was lawful for him to do so, but it will be the verdict of all that certainly it was neither expedient nor 'wise. - As well might he slip the leash of a bloodhound eager to spring upon its prey as to have made known as he did to the Tongari authorities at that moment that they were at liberty to do as they liked with their people ; and certainly it was not owing to any action of the Vice-consul's, or to any interceding otf^his part, that wholesale murder was not committed on the defenceless Wesleyans. It was solely owing ts the bold stand taken by | the Europeans, headed by the late Pro-consul W. E. Giles, Esq., that Baker's wretches were kept within bounds at all. Even' as it was one man was most cruelly and brutally murdered. The murder to which I refer is that of Semisi Ika, who was the head Wesleyan teacher afcEua. He with others was brought over to the island of Tongatabu, and was so battered about by Halaholo, the chief of Eva, that he died after lingering for a week. This' took place about three weeks since, and in fact it is not yet known whether death will not- ensue in many other cases from injuries 'received. For instance, in ' the case of Daniel Faubula, a British subject, son of the late very much lamented John Faubula, 'Wesleyan minister, and Tui Niyau, of Lakemba, Fiji, it is not at all certain whether the man will recover from the gross maltreatment, and cruelty to which he was subjected on the island of ' Lefuka-Haabai. This man has 3ince been banished to the island of Tofoa ; and when the Falaogongo returns * from Suva, we hear, it is the intention of the Tongan authorities to reship these people and to banish them' for ever to the out-of-the-way, desolate, and waterless island of Pyllstart. " " I forward you herewith a 'full account by an eye witness of what took place in Tonga before and after the arrival of the new Vice-consul; ajso an account of the judicial, murders committed on the island of Malinoa, together. with thY particulars of an interview which took place between the two .Roman Catholic priests of Maofagaand a certain lady, arid a.lso .their subsequent interview (while seeking assistance and protection) with the British yiod-M.-onsul, Beekwith, Leefe, Esq. '.Business there is none, nor is there likely to be anynntil th,ese troubles are brought' to an end ; and as far as Mr Baker is concerned, his troubles have but just commenced. Should the British Government take a merciful view of his case, he will, right speedily be removed out of the greatest danger, and may thus escape his. otherwise all but certain fate. 4 petition' signed by every independent white man in this the Vavauan group will be forwarded on to Tonga to meet his Excellency Sir Charles' Mitchell on his arrival. The prayer of this petition is that a most strict and searching investigation- may be made into all matters' relating to these troubles, and that the inquiry may be made personally by his Excellency the Governor of Fiji and High Com* missioher for the' Western Pacific, . . ■ , " Marcus F. Hamilton. Advick %o Mothkbsl— Are you broken in your rest by a sick child suffering with the pain of cutting teeth ? Go at once to a chemist and get a bottle of SoothistgSyro?. , It will relieve the poor siffferer Immediately. It la perfectly harmless and pleasant to' the' taste : it produces natural «uiet sleep, by relieving the- ohild* from pain; and the little cjieriib "awakes •« as bright asabutton." It soothes the child, it softens the gums, allays all /pain, relieves w|qd regulates the bowels, and is the best'; known remedy for' "dysentery and dlarrhcea -whetlier arising * from He&tbing .or other' causes. Mks WiNStow's Soothing Strvp is sold by medi-cine-dealers everywhere at It ljd per bottle.— Advt.]