in Tonga
p. 81 · Read in the full issue
Gilbertese May Settle in Tonga
From Our Own Correspondent
Nukualofa, Oct. 5.
AN offer is being made by the Tonga Government to settle one hundred Gilbert Islanders from the over populated G. and E. Colony in the King dom.
The matter was placed before the last session of Parliament and the motion was carried unanimously. The final decision was left for Queen Salote and the Privy Council, whose assent has now been given.
Although the population of the King dom is increasing rapidly, many of its islands which are suitable for habitation are still unsettled. Consequently, any area set aside for the use of new settlers would not diminish to any extent, the living space still available for the Tongans.
However, an interesting question would arise, namely, the national status of the new settlers. Whether they are to re tain the nationality of their country of origin, or become Tongan subjects by naturalisation is still not known. The proposed grant of free land to them would raise a legal problem also, as under the Tongan Constitution and Land Act, non- Tongans may acquire land under lease, but outright sale of land is absolutely prohibited, that being one of the binding covenants of the Constitution on which the wise and far-seeing King George I of Tonga insisted when he established the present constitutional government.
Naturalised Tcngans are, of course, en titled to all rights and privileges, obliga tions and duties to which natural-born Tongan subjects are entitled or subject to, with the exception that they are not entitled to the rights of free hereditary land as tax allotments.
To meet the situation, it is obvious that amending legislation is to be brought into effect.
One slow but certain solution of the problem, however, will be the natural absorption of the new settlers into the Tongan population by inter-marriage— the inevitable fate of all minority groups living within a larger population.
The close affinity of the Gilbertese and Tongans would hasten this process, since the two peoples are both branches of the Polynesian race.
It is interesting to note that surplus people from the Gilbert Islands have al ready been settled in the Phoenix Islands and on Rambe, a big island in the Fiji Group.