Sunday Laws - Who Cares?

The government-owned Tonga Chronicle, which has recently started to take a lively interest in public affairs in the kingdom, in November conducted its own public opinion poll on whether Tongans want changes in the restrictive Sunday Observance laws, designed to keep Sunday holy. Tongans can do virtually nothing on Sundays under these laws.

In its poll, the Chronicle got only 200 replies to questionnaires in 3,350 copies of the paper. Most of these thought the law could be relaxed and Sunday still remain holy, but when it got down to the details they weren’t so enthusiastic.

Most thought buses and taxis should be able to operate on Sundays and bakers should be able to bake bread. But they also thought that bread shouldn’t be sold on Sundays, and that no shops at all should be open.

And no sport should be allowed. Nor should aircraft be allowed to land, or tourist ships arrive, or entertainment be provided for tourists on Sundays.

But just to prove that they weren’t specially taking it out on the tourists, the survey showed that a big majority of those who answered the poll didn’t agree that Tongans should be allowed to garden around their own home on Sundays, or go fishing.