[?]Oss Of A British

Memorial In Nukualofa

N May, 1898, Mr. R. Hanslip, of Nukualofa, Tonga, called a general meeting to consider the ist way of celebrating Queen ictoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Many ■oposals were made. Each pro isal had to be voted on. The pro >sal which fetched the most votes as “a hall to be built and to be lied Queen Victoria Memorial all.” A committee was elected — r. Rob. Hanslip (Chairman), 'thur Wright, manager of UAPP iecretary), and F. T. Goedicke (of e Club Hotel).

From the start the committee id lots of trouble. When we asked e Tongan Government for the ant of a section of land on which erect the hall, an old cemetery the Beach Road area was of red. The committee, insulted, •ote to the Governor of Fiji who nt a strong letter to the Tongan Dvernment. The result was that r o other sections were offered — ie where the present Nukualofa ub is erected and one on the ain street, in the centre of the wn. This section the committee cepted.

In 1901 the hall was finished, •nsul Hamilton Hunter, CMG, ened it with a gilded key.

E left Tonga for Haapai in 1915, ter being a member of the com ttee for 17 years. In 1942. while siding in Haapai, I was told that e Victoria Memorial Hall had en pulled down. I wrote to Con

sul Johnson, a good friend of mine, asking if this report was correct, and he told me that when he arrived in Nukualofa in 1942, and saw the filthy state in which the American soldiers had left the Hall, he gave orders to have the Hall pulled down. The lumber was sold to the Wesleyan Church and Mr. J.

Prothero (then manager of Morris Hedstrom) offered his kind service

in seeing that a new hall was built, But 11 years have gone by and no new hall has been built. When are the loyal Britishers in Tonga going to again provide a memorial to the good and well-beloved Queen Victoria? I am only a naturalised Britisher (since 1884) but I bow my head in shame to see the way in which this Memorial has been treated.—F. T. Goedicke.