Royal Romance in Tonga

Days of King George Tupou II Recalled

From Our Own Correspondent

Nuku’Alofa. Jan., 14.

JUST now the main topic discussed throughout the Kingdom at kava parties (the medium through which, in the absence of newspapers, news is exchanged and public opinion formulated), is the proposed marriage of Crown Prince Tunouto’a-Tungi. which, according to re liable sources, is to take place about next July. , , .

Interest is heightened by the fact that the identity of the royal bride-to-be is still a Court secret. Rumour has linked the name of the young Prince with several of the most eligible young ladies of the Tongan nobility, of whom the most favoured in public esteem in Halaevalu Mata’aho, daughter of High Chief ’Ahome’e. She is finishing her education at a well-known ladies college at Auck land at present and will return to Tonga shortly. She is closely connected with the Tongan Royal Family, and her father has been appointed Governor of Ha’apai Group.

Crown Prince Tupouto’a-Tungi. who is now 28 years old, has a quiet and charm ing personality and possesses admirable qualities of leadership. He received his early education at Tupou College, the Methodist College founded by Dr. J. E.

Moulton in Tonga, and later entered New ington College. Sydney, and finally Sydney University, where he had outstanding success both as a scholar and an athelete.

He graduated in both Arts and Law. He is the first and only Tongan to have received university education.

THE current crop of rumours of Royal romance recalls the turbulent days when choosing a consort for the late King George Tupon 11. father of Her Majesty Oueen Salote. almost caused civil strife. Rumour had extended the field of choice beyond the Kingdom to include Royal ladies of other Island groups. Young princesses of the Royal Houses of Fiji, Samoa. Tahiti and Raro tonga had in turns been “betrothed.” to the young King. Even as far north as Hawaii, the long arm of rumour ex tended to weave a royal romance between the handsome youthful king and beauti ful young Princess Kaiulani, heir pre sumptive to the Hawaiian throne, then occupied by pathetic Queen Liliuokalani.

Tongan bards vied with one another in composing songs and poems, eulogising the beauty and virtues of these young Island Princesses, that were sung and recited during nights of revelry at the Tongan Royal Palace, which was a marked feature of the" gay life of Island Royal Courts at the close of the romantic nineties.

However, the young King favoured two young Tongan ladies of high-chiefly rank: Lavina. daughter of the late High Chief Kupu, then Minister of Police of the Kingdom, and ’Ofa-kivava’u, an Island beauty, daughter of the late Ma’atu.

Paramount High Chief of the Island of Niuatoputapu (Keppels).

In support of the cause of each of these young ladies, the whole of Tonga, Chiefs and Commoners, were divided into two factions. Rivalry between them culminated in acts of incendiary and personal violence that almost resulted in civil war.

Finally King George chose as his con sort, Lavina, mother of the present Queen, the royal wedding taking place in 1899.

The lovely Ofa, sadly disillusioned over her rejection by the royal suitor, returned to her native Niuatoputapu in the north where her death, while still in her youth, was attributed to a broken heart.

Mrs. Ida Reynolds, widow of the late John Reynolds, who was lost on the ‘ Montevideo Maru” in June. 1942, expects to return to Rabaul shortly. She is at

present residing in Sydney. A son, a former officer of the Commonwealth Bank, Rabaul, was also lost with his father in the ill-fated boat.

The Rev. John S. Robinson of the Eagle Junction Congregational Church, Brisbane, has been appointed a mission ary to Nauru and Ocean Islands. He will be the first Protestant missionary to return to the island since the evacua tion in 1942. In an interview, he said that his main job would be the rehabilita tion of the natives, who were now living in caves under the most primitive con ditions and to re-establish the churches, mission house and school that had been razed by the invaders. He intended to follow the policy of the London Mission ary Society in preserving the Nauru language.