News and Notes from Tonga

Absurdities of the Liquor Act —Tongans’ Hunger for News —Breaking of Drought

From Our Own Correspondent

Nukualofa, April 28.

DIRECTED, as it is, to the Europeans resident in Tonga, and being dia metrically opposed to all the principles of British justice, Section 76 of the Liquor Act in the statute book is prob ably the most iniquitous clause in the whole of the country’s laws.

It reads, inter alia: “If it appears to an inspector of police that the quan tity of liquor purchased by any person (European) is excessive, having regard to such person’s reasonable needs, he shall report the matter to Cabinet and the Cabinet may place such restric tions as it thinks fit upon the person referred to.” The inspector can also demand from any licensed merchant in Tonga his books, so that he can check up all liquor purchases by Euro peans.

It appears that this section has been in the statute book since 1922.

That it got there without protest from the then British Consul is astounding, but very recently it has been brought surprisingly to the notice of the man in the street that the whole wording of the clause can lend itself to abuse. (That it also offers opportunity for “graft” is painfully obvious).

First of all, the question naturally arises: What constitutes a man’s “rea sonable needs”?

Does “reasonable needs” depend upon what the native police judge the aver age European body can absorb without doing harm? Or do the police consider that a man’s capacity for holding liquor can be determined by his income?

What we do know is that the police court records can give us no assist ance. In fact, the only prosecution for drunkenness in Tonga, for five years, as far as we can gather, related to a visiting sailor (with a weak stomach and without income) who was found asleep under a coconut tree.

If “reasonable needs” is based on income, we say that no Government is justified in restricting any law-abiding citizen until that citizen has had an opportunity of showing the Govern ment what his income is. What does a native policeman or any other kind of a policeman know of a man’s pri vate resources? And, after all, why should the policeman worry, if the citizen has broken no law?

Again, if “reasonable needs” is based on bodily requirements then we arrive at a psychological problem. We know a man who, for 40 years, has been known as a “bottle a day man,” and another who gets a pain in the head if he takes more than one “nip.” Both gentlemen are ten years beyond the allotted span and both are in aston ishingly good health. I venture to say that here is a problem beyond any kind of a policeman.

What has brought this astounding clause to the notice of the European public is a recent intimation by the Government that a business man (without any semblance of a trial and without any given reason) has

been restricted by the Cabinet. The gentleman in question, in remonstrat ing against this decision, pointed out that he has never been drunk in his life and has never been before the court on any charge of infringing the Liquor Act.

British residents are naturally curi ous, now, to see the outcome of a proposed appeal to the British Consul, when he returns to Tonga. If no relief can be had in that direction, then it behoves each European on the beach to see to it quickly that he keeps “well in” with our stalwart body of native police.

Wireless Press News

The meagre, and hopelessly uninter esting, official Press News which comes through the ether to Tonga, and which, in the past, has been accepted in the nature of a joke, has how, apparently, stirred inhabitants up to a stage of resentment.

It is said that while local amateurs with their sets were receiving and dis seminating momentous news about the New Zealand earthquake, and the proposed partition of New South Wales, the official Press, through the Government wireless station, went into ecstasies over such things as a three legged calf in California and Phar lap’s chance in the next race.

The official Press is translated into the Tongan language for the benefit of the Tongan people, with the know ledge that, in reviewing an account of events from day to day, the Tongan will, in absorbing this news, gain a comprehensive idea of those world affairs which will tend to broaden his mind and outlook.

Naturally enough, the Tongan, being always curious about Australian and New Zealand happenings, cannot un derstand why important information seems to be withheld from him. An enquiry elicited the fact that, although the news of the ’quake was immedi ately known at the wireless station, some convention with Marconi or Amalgamated Wireless made it im possible to distribute the news until it had gone through certain other oversea stations, thus entailing a delay of some twelve to sixteen hours. One can readily perceive our distress if news of an approaching cyclonic storm were withheld until the terms of some convention were complied with.

In any case, the Tongan seems to now view the wireless station with some distrust. He persists in the no tion that, as the taxpayers contribute some £2,000 per annum for “wireless,” he should get better service in the way of world-wide news. He knows that an extra receiving set was in stalled two years ago, at a cost of some £200, for the specific purpose of getting in daily touch with the Rugby station. After the installation Rugby news came through splendidly for a couple of weeks and then abruptly ceased. The reason seems shrouded in mystery. It is said that some “dead pocket” suddenly developed somewhere in the ether between Rugby and Tonga. Still, the Tongan is hard to convince, and he now argues that, if this atmospheric disaster is perman ent the station does not require a staff of four operators.

As the sum total of “Press” averages about 10 lines daily, and the telegrams (in and out) probably a round dozen per diem, there seems, without con clusive evidence to the contrary, no reason why the wireless department should not suffer some retrenchment.

Good Crop Prospects.

The dry spell which unaccountably heralded the new year and subse quently began to cause uneasiness to

planters, broke down completely on the third day of March. The rainfall for this month, to the great joy of all, has now risen to twenty inches.

The fruit trees (particularly ban anas) have taken a fresh lease of life, and prospects are rosy indeed for excellent crops at the end of the cur rent year.

An Unwanted Sailor

The s.s. Lake Galewood arrived from overseas on March 22, with a cargo of lumber and oils for Messrs. Burns, Philp Co. Ltd.

Her departure from Nukualofa was delayed 24 hours, owing to one of the crew making a break for the bush. The native police eventually dug him out and led him, protesting, to the local lock-up.

In the end, as nobody seemed to want him in Tonga, he was handed back to the ship’s master and the ves sel proceeded to our northern ports, en route for Suva.