Sydney

Tongan Chiefs

Distinguished Visitors in Sydney

TWO esteemed Tongan high chiefs, * Hon. Ata (Queen Salote’s cousin and Minister for Lands at Nukualofa) and Hon. Sateki Akauola (Governor of Vavau) arrived in Sydney by the Awatea on December 2 to spend four months’ holiday in Australia. Solomone Biukana, Ata’s small son, accompanied them.

Receiving a cordial reception, they were feted at numerous functions (in cluding* the Pacific Islands Club gather ing on December 8), and they made a very favourable impression on all whom they met. These two Tongans provide an excellent example of how high-class Polynesians, under the stimulus of edu cation, can accept European culture and conduct the affairs of their own terri tories.

According to ancient Tongan tradition, Ata ; is custodian of the flying foxes (of tourists’ fame) at Kolovai, his estates.

The chief is also one of the heads of the Ha’a Gata family, whose ancestral duties are to see that the ceremonial rites con nected with kava are strictly observed in the Kava Ring of the Tu’i Kanokubolu.

He is a direct descendant of the aged chief Ata who, having been carried in a litter to the scene of battle, was aban doned by his warriors when they were defeated by Finau’s army in the famous battle of the sea-flats, at Hihifo, close to Kolovai, as related by Mariner in his

classic volume, “Tonga.”

Akauola holds the rank of Matahule (Master of the Kava Ceremony). His ancestors were mariners to the Tu’itoga, having originally migrated from Samoa.