History Of Home-Brew

In Tonga

“T NOTE recent references to the manufacture of ‘home-brew’ in Tonga,” writes Count F. T. Goedicke vaji Asten, from Auckland. “The Tongans are not to be blamed for that. There are good and bad people in Tonga, just as in any other country—l lived there for 68 years, so I should know.

“I was proprietor of the Nukualofa Hotel for 9 years. When a native came in with a liquor permit signed by the doctor or the head of the police, and produced 8/-, he got his bottle of whisky or gin, I saw very little crime and less drunkenness, “Then the Nukualofa Club and the Tonga Club were established, with liquor licenses, and the old system went by the board, and the natives could no longer get liquor in that way, under strict control. The con sequence was, quite naturally, that they made home-brew.

“If they would make it as it should be made, it would do little harm.

But their practice has been to use a mixture of paw paw, pineapple, sugar or sugarcane, rice, hops, coco nut milk and any kind of liquid that contains alcohol, such as Florida Water, with a dash of methylated spirits to give it additional interest.

After drinking this horrible concoc tion even the kindliest Polynesian is ready for any kind of lunacy.”