On Loose Again!

Seadog and Tiger

Another Tongan Gaol-break

From our own correspondent

Nuku’Alofa, April 20.

rrHE Kingdom’s two most notorious X criminals, Mahe Tupou (alias the Seadog), ’ and Tupou Ngata (alias the Tiger) have once again made a bold

bid for freedom by breaking from the Mataki’eua Prison with another prisoner, a youth named Viliami Maka, on the night of April 11.

After evading a determined police search, the escapees got away from the Kingdom on the night of April 18 on a 14 ft. sailing boat (belonging to M!r. R.

Skeen, Government Printer) which had been anchored at the Nuku’alofa water front.

This was Mahe Tupou’s fourth escape from the Kingdom. On the first three, he and his companions landed on islands of the Lau Group, Fiii, whither most likely they are making on their present venture.

Mahe Tupou’s first escape from the Kingdom was remarkable for the fact that it was made in a crudely made canoe, and during the 15 days he and his companions drifted across the 400 miles of windswept ocean between Tonga and Fiji they lived almost solely on coco nuts, plus some raw shark meat.

Tupou Ngata, on the other hand, has never gone beyond the Kingdom before this, but he caused a sensation some years ago when he escaped from prison and ventured across the treacherous passage between Tongatapu and ’Eua on a frail canoe. By hiding in almost inac cessible parts of the island of ’Eua, he defied police searchers for weeks before he was captured on one of his forays for food into one of the villages on the island.

The alarming increase in prison escapes in the last few years and their resultant unnecessary wasteful expense of public money is causing much public criticism of the Gaol Department. (Editorial Note: We seem to remember that a year or so ago, the necessary legislation was passed in Fiji and Tonga whereby criminals from Tonga could be made to serve their sentences in the greater security of Suva gaol.)