A Queen Opens

Parliament

Big Guns and Bunting

Picturesque Ceremony

In Tonga

From a Special Correspondent Nukualofa, Aug. 20.

LAST evening’s tropical sky gave

promise of a cloudless dawn, and

so to-day, the promise fulfilled,

natives were flocking at an early hour in the direction of Parliament House to view the procession, timed to leave the Palace gates at 10 o’clock.

Flags of every description gaily flut tered on the “beach” and, at her anchorage, well within the reef, H.M.S.

Dunedin put up a brave show of bunt ing to honour the occasion. She is making her annual South Sea cruise, this ship of war, and, in visiting Tonga in her circuit, gives the natives of the Island Kingdom that feeling of security which the cold print of their “Protec tion Treaty” with Britain could never achieve.

As the hour approached, Europeans made their appearance, and mingled with the natives on the “Malae,” front ing the Parliament buildings, their tropical whites showing up in striking contrast to the bizarre colours adopted by the Tongans.

Suddenly the doors were thrown open, and certain gentlemen, native and foreign, passing between the ranks of Royal Guards, respectfully entered the precincts. These were Her Majesty’s Ministers of the Crown, together with the elected members of the nobles, and representatives of the people. Twenty two men in all, they will probably sit in session for some five or six weeks, dis cussing and reviewing the Estimates and new' laws presented by the Execu tive Council for their approval or other wise.

The Speaker of the House is worthy of note among these men. Short in stature, but with tremendous breadth and depth, I visualise in him the liv ing reincarnation of his famous ances tor, that renowned fighting king of the northern islands, who sacked and burned the privateer “Port au Prince,” a century and a quarter ago. In this man is personified the real fighting aristocrat of the Pacific.

As the Palace clock struck the hour, the cannon boomed out the commence ment of a 21-gun salute, and an array of amateur photographers pushed their way to the front of the throng. Then there was a stiffening of the ranks of the College students that lined the roadside from Palace to Parliament, and eager onlookers closed up in a mass at the entry-arch, . . . The Queen was on her way.

When the last gun had fired, the Royal car stopped before the archway, and Her Majesty Queen Salote Tubou, attended by her Aide and Royal pages, descended to the strains of the Tongan National Anthem. As she stood there in the glaring sunlight, with the rays flashing from her diadem, one could not help but reflect that this regal woman, carrying herself with conscious pride, was descended from a long line of warrior chiefs that had for genera tions been the over-lords of the greater part of the South Pacific.

As she ascended to the hallway, her bodyguard sprang to attention, and, shortly afterwards, her sharp, clear voice, speaking her address in the ver nacular, was plainly heard by the eager listeners outside.

In a remarkably short time she re appeared, entered her car and, with a gracious smile to her subjects, was car ried back through the Palace gates.

For the space of a year she will be seldom seen, but, nevertheless, it has been my privilege to see and hear Roy alty address a Legislative Assembly in the Kingdom of Tonga, at the opening of the 30th session, in the year of our Lord, 1930.