Parliament

Tonga Elects New

History of the Growth of Democracy Recalled

From Our Own Correspondent

Nukualofa. June 14.

AT the general Parliamentary election, held recently throughout the King dom, these candidates were elected as representatives of the people: M. Finau, H. Vete and S. Lino, for Tongatapu.

V. L. Tu’akihekolo and P. Vi, for Ha’apai.

P. Afuha’amango and V. Molofaha, for Vava’u.

M. Finau, S. Lino, V. Molofaha and P.

Vi were sitting members. V. L.

Tu’akihekolo, youngest of the successful candidates, is 29, and is a lawyer by pro fession, as is H. Vete. P. Afuha’amango has been a former member.

Members of Tonga’s Parliament hold office for three years.

Parliament, which normally sits during the middle, of the year, is constituted of seven elected representatives of the people, seven elected representatives of the nobles (hereditary chiefs created titular nobles with grants of estates from the Crown) and seven Ministers of the Crown, in cluding the Governors of Ha’apai and Vava’u. It is presided over by a Speaker, appointed by the Crown, generally from the nobles.

This election was conducted under the new electoral law enacted last year which provides for the nomination of candi dates. Each candidate is now nominated by at least 30 voters; a payment of a £5 deposit to be refunded on the can didate securing 20 per cent, of the total poll for his electoral district, must also be made.

Hitherto, polling was done in a hap hazard way and it was generally a case of you voting for your neighbour and your neighbour voting for you. since all voters were eligible for election.

Parliaments of Other Days IT is a matter of great interest, politically as well as historically, and especi ally with the present universal clam ouring on the part of indigenous races for self-rule, to note that the little King dom has been successfully running a Parliament, modelled on the English Par liamentary system, for close on a century.

That sagacious and far-seeing Polynesian warrior-statesman. King George I Tupou, convened Tonga’s first Parliament on June A . 1862 (a date now kept as a public holi day in the Kingdom), after the unifica tion of the whole Group under his rule

and the inception of a regular, modern Government along democratic lines, when he delivered his subjects from serfdom, and the despotic rule of their chiefs. After that first historic meeting, Parliament met at irregular intervals in the years 1867, 1871. 1874, 1880 and 1882. From 1882 to 1912 it met every three years, but in 1914, due to the pressing need of expediency, the present practice of holding sessions annually came into being.

The present number of its Members is only a fraction of what it was during Parliament’s early years. Originally, all the nobles in the Kingdom, numbering 32 at that time, had seats in the Assembly.

The same number of representatives of the people also sat, besides the Cabinet Ministers. So in all. the Kingdom’s Par liament in those days was an impressive Assembly, rendered more so by the Mem bers’ mode of dress.

Members were attired in full European dress suits, plus shoes, as dictated by the standard of propriety set up by the over zealous Victorian missionaries of the day, who were determined to convert not only the “heathen’s” inner life, but his out ward life as well.

To distinguish themselves from the ordinary Members, Ministers of the Crown, as befitted their high offices, wore full dress uniforms patterned on the official regulation uniforms of British Admirals and Generals of the period, complete with cocked hats with plumes, and swords. It must have been extremely uncomfortable for them in that packed Assembly in the tropical heat.

It is little wonder that certain writers on the Pacific of those days referred to the little Kingdom as a “comic opera.”

Police Superintendent A. L. Abrahams, of Fiji, is on his way to the UK on leave.