Plan To Shoot Tongan
p. 50 · Read in the full issue
Ministers
Prom Our Own Correspondent.
Nukualofa, Apr. 2.
A PLOT to assassinate the Ministers of the Tongan Cabinet was disclosed recently. It was hatched at the Siaine Prison by a native who was sen tenced last December to four years’ im prisonment for fraudulent conversion of property.
This man incited a fellow-prisoner, a youth named Tugua, to carry out his plan. He wrote a letter to a friend em ployed on the “Matua”, requesting him to procure two pistols and some ammu nition from Auckland. The letter was given to Tugua, who was engaged, with a gang of prisoners, working on the wharf on steamer days. Tugua, instead of taking the letter to the man on the “Matua”, took it to the police.
There has been an alarming increase in crimes in Tonga during recent years.
In 1935 there were 28 criminal cases be fore the Supreme Court. In 1936 this figure rose to 48, a record. That figure was exceeded last year when it increased to 59. This year there already have been 13 criminal cases before the Supreme Court.