Strain Of Government In Tonga

Letter to the Editor.

IN your issue of the 20th September (page 22) there is a half column under the heading “Tonga’s Finance,” from the tone of which it would appear that it is officially or semi-officially inspired. Reading this piece of news one would think that things are not so bad in Tonga; as a matter of fact they are simply awful, the first signs of barter having appeared.

It never seems to strike these pro- Government contributors that the very raison d’etre of any Government is the happiness and prosperity of the governed.

All they are concerned to show is that the Government of Tonga is financially sound so that they can keep their jobs for a while longer.

But what about the condition of the Tongan people of whom there are about 28,000, and for whom £60,000 per annum is required to “govern”? And what about the 36/- per year poll tax (increased if not paid on time to 52/-) and £1 per ton ex port tax that the Government takes from each taxpayer whether he has an allotment or not, and irrespective of whether his allotment can produce 36/- per annum at current price of copra?

Who is that bright individual so well yersed in the science of government who Contended that if all the money were taken from the Tongans they could still live, the implication being, of course, that it would be the right thing to do, so long as a bunch of parasites were kept in their jobs?

And who is that other who argued that, because the Traders were on velvet in 1919 and 1920, the civil servants should be on velvet now? Did it ever strike him that government does not mean a struggle for justice between two alien sections of a population, but rather the attainment of a comfortable and ordered existence for the

body of the people indigenous to the islands forming the Tongan group, many of whom never come within the orbit of the Govern ment’s activities except to pay the 36/- per annum ?

I can hear a squeal that there is free medical attention and education provided.

Yes, there is, at a cost together of £14,477; and the balance, £45,600, goes in the main tenance of the other Government depart ments, some of which could be scrapped for all the use they are, others reduced drastically in personnel, and adequate re ductions made in salaries of those that re main, by not less than twenty-five per cent.

In the present economic condition of Tonga, all Government officers are hope lessly overpaid, and the recent reductions of from 2½ per cent, to per cent, from salaries, on a sliding scale, is a Gilbertian joke that could not be perpetrated any where outside this Kingdom.

The Government of Tonga to-day ap parently has no one with either the ability or the inclination to start on the cleaning up of the Augean stable. They are imbued with that worst spirit of officialdom, “To hell with you, Jack; I’m all right.” The responsibility for the unwieldy anachro nism rests upon the Tongan Cabinet and the British Council, either or both. They are quite charming people to meet in dividually and personally; collectively and governmentally, they are impossible.

Securely ensconced behind the battlements of privilege, and protected by the moat of a packed legislative assembly, nothing, whether it be reason, appeal or decency, can shake their impenetrable complacency.

I am, Sir, etc.,

Theban.

Nukualofa. 27th January, 1934.