The Queen

All Set For

A 12-foot high carved slit gong from Ambrym in the New Hebrides was one of the gifts awaiting the Queen in New Zealand during her March tour.

The gong was used last October in a ceremony when Tofor, who is making the gift, took one of the highest titles in Namage, New Hebrides.

Valued at over $2,000 by the British Administration, the gong is similar to another which stands in the Museum of Primitive Art in New York.

A dealer from New York recently offered Tofor a con siderable sum for the gong— but he preferred to give it to the Queen.

Incidentally Tofor is quite a personality himself. He has refused, like his father, Tein mal, to adopt western ways and wears traditional “dress”.

This refusal has caused him some trouble and a little while ago, writes Tessa Fowler, he spent a year in prison on a charge of practising black magic. (Over)

The Slit Gong

The royal tour, at the end of February, was all set to pass through the Pacific like a whirl wind. At 6.25 p.m. on March 4 the Queen, Duke of Edin burgh and Princess Anne were to arrive at Nadi, Fiji, where they were to be met by the Governor, Sir Robert Foster and Lady Foster.

Five minutes later they were due to set off on a 15 minute ride to Lautoka, slowing down at strategic points for crowds to gather. At 7.30 p.m. they were due to embark in the Brittania for Suva. The next evening, after a tour of the city, they were to leave for Tonga in the Brittania.

Before she left, the Queen was to present a royal charter to the University of the South Pacific at a campus ceremony.

Brittania was expected to dock at Nukualofa at about 8.30 a.m. on March 7. The royal visitors were to be wel comed at Queen Salote Wharf by King Taufa’ahau, Queen Mata’aho and their daughter Princess Pilolevu, the Premier, Prince Tu’ipelehake and his daughter Princess Siuilikutapu.

The Queens programme in cludes inspection of a guard of honour mounted by the Tonga Defence Force before being taken on a sightseeing tour of Tongatapu, taking in the spot where Captain James Cook landed in the 1770’5, and the Ha’amonga trilithon.

There King Taufa’ahau was expected to take time to ex plain to his visitors his now proved theory that the Ha’amonga was used by ancient Tongans to determine the seasons.

Following the drive, the Queen was expected to call on the British Commissioner and Consul in Tonga, Mr. A. C.

Reid, then proceed, via the royal palace, to a huge feast.

The royal party was then expected to return to the Brittania, planting commemo rative trees at the Nukualofa Tropical Gardens on the way, and that night hold a recep tion in honour of the Tongan Royalty. After leaving Tonga they were then to go to New Zealand, where other Island leaders were waiting for them.