Culture

Research in Tonga Culture

THE Bishop Museum, Hawaii, has had Tonga in view, for research, for some time, and, but for the war, the Director, Professor Peter H. Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa) would have spent some months there this year.

In a letter to the secretary of the Pacific Islands Society, Sydney (Mr. Eric Ramsden), wherein he expressed his deep regret at the passing of his old friend, Prince Tugi (Premier of Tonga), Professor Buck stated that he had been reading a manuscript on the material culture of Tonga by McKern, with a view to its publication by the Museum as a special bulletin. McKern and Gifford (the latter is well known for his pub lication on Tonga) were members of the Bayard Dominick Expedition which visited Tonga in 1920, oh behalf of the Bishop Museum.

Gifford completed his work and it was duly published. McKern had specialised in archaeology and material culture. The first section was finished, but it was not until this year that the second portion of his work came into the hands of the Museum. At one time, Dr. Buck thought of collaborating with this subject, but that intention had to be abandoned. “I had the idea”, he writes, “of going to Tonga and filling in the missing parts, particularly as I had collected much in formation from objects in European and American museums. The Tongans had much richer material in mats, baskets, pillows, etc., than Samoa, and I wanted to get such additional details as might be possible in the field on technique.”

Some of the baskets that he had seen in Vienna and Berne were collected by Cook and Webber.

However, the McKern manuscript has now been completed in detail, and, with the help of revision by Dr. Buck on the parts relating to houses and textiles (con cerning which he is an acknowledged authority), it is hoped to publish it in due course. “There is still enough for me to clear up, later, as the Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji area have so much in common in their arts and crafts,” he says, “that the whole subject requires a comparative

study.”

E. R.