Tonga celebrates (and the bananas miss

bananas miss the boat)

Tonga celebrated King Taufa’ahau’s 50th birthday, and the first anniversary of his coronation, with a four day holiday in July.

It was a holiday in true Polynesian style. There were concerts and all night movie shows and official in spections and Rugby matches and yacht and canoe races and feasts and feasts.

And the king opened the new $T200,000 police training centre (90 per cent of which was paid for by Britain under the five-year develop ment plan). The centre, which con tains 20 buildings and stands in 25 acres, will cater for 50 recruits. It has a fleet of modern vehicles, fitted with two-way radios, and the nucleus of a department of scientific crime detection.

What the king said

In the words of the newly-appointed Minister of Police, the Hon.

Akau’ola, the new centre “is a sign of Tonga’s maturity in the modern world.”

The king told the Tongan people that they were in a much better position than other people to with stand lack of funds. He pointed out that the necessities of life existed in abundance in Tonga. But, he stressed, greater prosperity was needed to pro

vide better health and housing and a fuller family life.

The last point made by the king was welcomed by observers in Nukualofa. For while Tongans danced and ate their way through the four-day holiday, Tonga’s banana exports were slipping—and not for want of bananas.

A report issued recently by the Department of Agriculture showed that during the first six months of this year, Tongan banana exports to NZ stood at 293,000 cases, com pared with 333,000 cases for the same period last year. The drop was caused, not by a failure of the banana crop, but by the fact that not enough workers were willing to cut and pack bananas.

They were too busy organising the celebration of 100 years of education and progress in the king dom. So the bananas ripened on the palms.

• Above, the king at Thanksgiving Service in the Royal Chapel, Nukualofa, on July 4, his 50th birthday. To his left is Queen Mata'aho, and to his right is Prince Aho'eitu.