Niuafoouans Will Soon

Be Established on Eua

IT is expected that by next October the 1,100 former residents of Niuafoou (Tin Can Island), in the Tongan Group, will be established on Eua, a small island about 30 miles south-east of the main Tongan island of Tongatabu.

Niuafoou was almost devastated by a volcantic eruption in September, 1946, and last December the whole population, with the exception of 28 who were left behind to round up the pigs, harvest crops and dismantle the few remaining buildings, was evacuated to Tongatabu.

Since then they have been living on Queen Salote’s estate, just outside Nukualofa. This temporary village has been called Mataliku, and crops planted when the Niuafoouans first arrived are now almost ready to harvest. In the in terval, they have been provided with food by Tongatabu villagers.

Eau is a very fertile island where, it is said, corn is ripe six weeks after plant ing. The population hitherto has been only about 400, some of them descendants of Tongans from the small island of Ata, whose population was preyed upon by blackbirders about 80 years ago. To save these Islanders from being transported to Chile, they were transferred to Eua.

In spite of Niuafoou’s volcanoes and Eua’s richness, many of the refugees now awaiting transport in Mataliku think longingly of their old home and, if given the choice, would ignore Eua and will ingly return to Niuafoou.