Notes From Tonga

Parliament Opens Further Taxation Mooted Big Fish at Vavau

From Our Own Correspondent.

Nukualofa, July 6

HER Majesty, the Queen of Tonga, opened the 31st Session of the Tongan Parliament on June 25, and our Ministers and Representatives are, at time of writing, wrestling with those many problems that are common to every Parliament at present.

The executive, we learn, will present its budget in the course of the coming week, when it is expected that the community will glean full tidings of further taxation.

It is now generally known that the duties will be increased on spirits, beer, wines and tobacco, and that privately owned motor cars (immune in the kingdom up to the present) will be saddled with a tax. Practically all of the liquor increases will affect the pockets of European residents only. The tobacco increase, too, will mainly effect the foreign resident, as the native usu ally prefers his own leaf to the im ported article.

Probably only one-fourth of the revenue to be derived from cars will come from native born.

Thus, it will be seen that, to balance the budget, the executive has been particularly careful to protect the na tional at the expense of the foreigner —and once again the Tongan will “smile one time.”.

Cuts For Civil Servants

Apart from the certainty of further taxation to balance the budget, we hear that civil servants, as a body, are particularly “jumpy” just now, owing to a persistent rumour that Parliament intends making a mass at tack on salaries.

We may safely prophesy that the civil servants will get hit to leg to the tune of a 10 per cent, “cut” when the estimates come under review.

It is to be hoped that the executive with this saving (about £4,000) will devote it towards a progressive “Roads Improvement” policy—that is, of course providing there are any roads left to improve by the time the powers that be make up their minds to push on with some sort of a roads policy.

“Foreign Investment” Plan

Continues

Notwithstanding the crying need for increased development throughout the kingdom, the Government (or its ex ecutive or financial advisers) seem tied to the “Foreign Investment” plan.

It is a fact that Tonga continues to invest her capital in foreign countries at 4 and 5 per cent., for the develop ment of those countries, while the little kingdom itself needs money for devel opment. The surplus seems to go up from year to year, and looks fine on the Treasury balance sheet, but many hold the opinion that farseeing finan ciers would, at the present time, de nounce the continuance of foreign investment.

Two-thirds of the money at present invested overseas, if sanely devoted to the kingdom’s development, would probably increase the country’s pros perity; and the other third would be an ample reserve for any contingency.

Zane Grey At Tonga

Zane Grey, author and deep-sea fisherman, in his well-appointed yacht, has been saun tering through our archipelago, searching with rod and line to discover and land the “biggest ever.”

Did he succeed? An extraordinary man, curiously retiring and reticent for an author, no one in the group seems to have been able to get intimate speech with him at all. It is said, though, that before leaving us he did break a couple of records in the deep waters of Vavau. What they were, and how he caught them, will undoubtedly ap pear in print at the appointed time, under say, the caption, “My Toughest Tug in Tonga.” (All rights reserved).

Club Ball

At Nukualofa, the “affaire” of the year is the Nukualofa Club Ball. Right from the Club’s inception, in 1914, this annual function has called forth volumes of praise for the munificent spread, the superb lighting effects, the glassy floor, the bewildering array of assorted drinks, and the highest priced band in the land.

All this is historic, and the 60 or 70 couples who were wont to arrive at their proper dwellings in the early hours of the morning after, would keep on talking about the great time they had had for weeks following the event, Alas! This year’s function, scheduled for July 17, has already cast a gloom over the island. Is it that the price of copra, coupled with the recent regrettable death of the Pre sident, to say nothing of the loss of its secre tary of 15 years’ standing, has thrown the Club completely off its balance?

Whatever the cause, the dread news has gone forth that finances demand that only 40 couples be provided for, which means that some 20 or 30 couples, on refection night, will be among the discards. Farseeing members of committee, in a state of terror at their own temerity, are now hurriedly arranging to be away on all sorts of duties in other parts

of the Group, immediately following the selec tion of guests.

One supposes that those unfortunate com mitteemen who can’t wangle a temporary transfer somewhere, or anywhere, will at least be provided with ear pads and boxing gloves. They will need them!

Warship S Visit

The H.M.S. Diomede has been with us for a week, and the usual round of entertain ments has taken up a good slice of the officials’ time.

The main shore function was a race meet ting, scheduled for Saturday, July 4, but the inclemency of the weather curtailed the number of events, and the whole outing was, unfortunately, rather a bedraggled affair. A function fixed for the same evening, on the ship, had for the same reason to be abandoned, and those who had been lucky enough to receive invitations were reluct antly compelled to relegate their “glad” at tire back to the lavender chest. (Your cor respondent, who had been at no little ex pense in getting his “swallowtail” recondi tioned, felt personally aggrieved at the necessity).

As occurred in Suva last year (according to the correspondent in your initial issue) there was here once again that undercurrent of bitterness over invitations that seems co incident nowadays with the visit of every warship. It would appear that, whereas up to recent years the Commodore’s Aide used to ask a couple of officials to submit a list of the European residents to him, and which he was wont to accept in toto, the compiling of the list has been latterly delegated to any ladies who happen to be energetic and worthy for the time being in the eyes of the officers of the ship. The result can hardly be satis factory to everybody.

Mrs. A. recalls that Mr. B. did not sub scribe to a guild fund, or some such worthy object, and so Mr. and Mrs. B. are elimin ated; then she remembers that Mrs. C. omitted to return her call, so that poor lady is ruled out—the whole sorry business resulting in dissatisfaction which would be obviated did the responsible ladies pay more attention to the broader values of social amenities as a whole and forget, for the time being at any rate, those transitory, parochial and distinctly personal animosities which are always a source of amazement and wonder to the mere male of the species.