Agitators In Tonga
p. 52 · Read in the full issue
From Our Own Correspondent.
Nukualofa, June 6.
OF late our ears have been assailed by the braying of agitators, who point accusing fingers at Government and missions, and flay both alike for having brought the vengeance of the gods on poor Tonga—hence the hurricane, drought, famine, low price of copra, high prices of commodities, increase in crimes, moral degeneracy of young Tongans, etc.
All these calamities, so these people reason—how they arrive at their con clusion is beyond our limited imagina tion—will pester us no more if the mis sionaries are sternly put into their pro per sphere, the Government disbanded, laws repealed and Europeans pushed out of the public service.
The past is presented to us appetising ly as the time when Tonga was for the Tongans and the country was overflow ing with milk and honey; which, so we were promised, will be our lot once again, if only we are men enough to stand up and cast off our bondage.
It is all very interesting: but the ef fect of it on public opinion in Tonga is little more than nil. It would be in teresting to know the true source of this agitation.
Mr. W. Goodwin, who for the past three years has been Director of Agri culture at Rarotonga, Cook Islands, ar rived in Auckland, N.Z., by the “Matua”, early in June 0£ leave.
Mr. W. H. Lucas, a retired officer of Bums, Philp & Co., arrived in Norfolk Island by the “Morinda” in June.