“Home Brew” On The Tongan

Front

And a Petition to the Government

From a Special Correspondent

HOME brew brings back democracy.

That’s a sentence to conjure with.

Like all true stories, it’s stranger than fiction. Let me tell you the story; and, since this is a story in the old classic meaning, it has a moral.

Out here in Tongatabu we witness many interesting things. Nothing is so fascinating as the sight of a native mak ing his version of that alcoholic beverage, cousin to beer, namely, “home brew.”

You probably have brewed it in your kitchen, and so have your friends. Many a bath tub has been recruited for its manufacture. And many a friendship has been strained because of boasts that one friend makes better home-brew than another —not to mention the friendships that have been made, warmed and cemented because of an evening spent drinking home-brew and talking.

Home-brew, the drink within the reach of every man, the democratic beer! Alas, its manufacture requires a certain know ledge, a certain culture, a definite know how. It’s not enough to be told what the ingredients are. One must know how to brew it; one must have an understand

ing of the chemistry involved, however amateurish.

Thus it is that the sight of a native making home-brew is fascinating. He is innocent of even the remotest know ledge of what should be mixed, what should be done, what is supposed to hap pen before the mixture is to be taken.

Having seen perhaps a European manufacture the product, he, taking pride in his superior genius, will immediately proceed to manufacture it on his own.

And so he mixes anything that comes within reach of his hands. Tobacco, sugar, methylated spirits, vinegar, hops, water and what-not, in any or no pro portions. One can well imagine the devilish and horrible concoction that re sults. And the sickness, * the pain, the eating away of the innards, the death that follows. Lest we forget, the violence and refusal to work his plantation!

IN order to put an end to this frightful state of affairs, the Government of Tonga recently passed a law prohibit ing the manufacture of all alcoholic liquors. Home-brew was exiled from the kingdom, just because natives were abus ing the right to make it.

Now, certain thinking people were for a law forbidding its manufacture by natives, when they saw the nameless stuff the natives were brewing and its effects upon the native, his private and social life.

But what was objected to, in better informed circles, was the complete and absolute prohibition of the manufacture of home-brew.

It was felt that the law was badly drawn in that it made no distinction be tween the European, who possessed know ledge of its manufacture, and who made it solely for his own consumption and not for sale, and the native, who was abnor mally ignorant as to what should be done, and how, and who made it for sale. It was also felt that the European was be ing penalised for the natives’ abuses and faults.

Then, again, it was argued that the prohibition would mean the increased im portation of beer and thus hamper the war effort, inasmuch as the space set aside for beer could be used for the trans portation of much-needed foodstuffs and manufactured articles. The price of beer having risen, it was reasonable to suppose that only the better-fixed people would be able to afford sufficient bottles of beer.

The average fellow would have to severely limit himself —if he were lucky to get any, after the more influential have had their full.

It was the considered opinion of many business men and traders that the impor tation of manufactured articles rather than beer would be beneficial to the war effort, since it would give the native an incentive to manufacture and sell copra.

As it is, the shelves of the stores are empty, and the natives, having no use for the money they already have, find little reason to work. Consequently, copra pro duction has dropped to an alarming level, despite the prevalent high price.

Rev. John Havea, described as “repre senting the fourth generation of his fam ily in the Ministry of the Tongan Metho dist Church,” arrived in Perth in Aug ust, and was the subject of an interview headed, “Tonga Ready to Fight,” in the “West Australian.”