On Asunday-Except...

In Tonga It’S Never, Never

Things have changed so much since 1875, even in a small and rather homogeneous society such as Tonga. Whereas the missionaries exerted a very powerful impact on the thinking of the higher echelons of society in 1875, today they are told to confine their thinking to spiritual matters. Moreover, whereas in 1875 there were no tourists to attend to, no power station to keep a watch on, no police force as such to maintain law and or der, these are part and parcel of Tongan society today.

Even more ridiculous is the fact that the Sunday Law is im possible to enforce and is, therefore, invalid. This impossibility of application was clearly demonstrated five years ago when Justice Roberts dismissed a charge for baking bread on the Sab bath Day brought against master baker Frank Cowley by the police.

Mr Cowley did not deny that he was baking bread on Sun days. Rather, he argued that, as his family had been baking bread on Sundays for 80 years, he could not see why the police should suddenly declare such a customary practice unlawful.

In his summing up, Justice Roberts argued that the ap plication of the Sunday Law would result in, among other things, there being no electric light or power, no normal care of hospital patients, no hotel services and the Police Force itself

being hamstrung.

Was it mentioned that the police officers, in detecting the of fence, were also working on the Sabbath?

As such he judged the provisions of the Sunday Law to be un workable as they are impossible of enforcement, and are therefore invalid.

“Therefore,” Justice Roberts continued, “until the Legislature amends and clarifies the law relating to work and trade in Tonga on the Sabbath Day so as to make such law possible to enforce, the Gouts must, in my opinion, apply the law established by custom”.

The law established by custom, Justice Roberts elaborated, is a “law of right not written, which being established by long use and the consent of our ancestors, has been and daily is put in practice”.

He could not, therefore, but find for the defendant.

Charges against other bakers were thus subsequently dropped by the police, and the bakers have ever since been happily baking (and stealthily selling when they could) while the rest of Tonga attend to their religious services.

The absurdity and, in my opinion, extreme hypocrisy of the Sunday Law is also clearly seen when it is quite lawful for a hotel employee to attend to a tourist as Tonga needs his foreign exchange, but unlawful for a stevedore unless permission has been granted (which is not always the case) to load perishable exports on Sundays, especially in bright daylight!

In the Friendly Islands “the Sabbath Day shall be sacred. . .forever and ever and it shall not be lawful to do work or play games or trade on the Sabbath”. So declares the Tongan Constitution.

But, it is not unlawful for a policeman, a hotel employee, a chauffeur, or a radio announcer to work on the Sabbath, and of course be paid for it! Further, one can buy a beer at the hotel, but one cannot hire a taxi to take one’s sick child to the hospital

From a Nukualofa correspondent

unless it is an emergency case and that approval from the ap propriate authority naslseen given. And while such approval is being sought, the child’s life could be in real danger.

Such is the anomalous absurdity of Tonga’s Sunday Law One cannot fathom why this piece of legal anachronism has not been seriously examined, not only in the light of its inherent con tradictions but also in the light of present-day conditions.

The answer may lie in what someone recently said: “The con tradictions of the Sunday Law are but one example of the con tradictions and hypocrisy that are increasingly becoming part of the Tongan society”. Or is it only one of the stages through which a traditional society must wade in its attempt to adapt to the demands of the twentieth century?

While the Sunday Law might have been well-suited to the conditions of 1875, when it, and other Clauses of the Con stitution, was enacted, and to the super-puritanic and outdated attitudes and tastes of the missionaries who had extraordinary influence on the then law-makers, it is certainly, or at least some aspects of it are. not suited to today’s conditions.

There have been occasions when perishable exports had been left behind or left exposed to the sun all day Sunday because of the Sunday Law. God, I’m sure, would be more disappointed with such a waste, which Tonga can ill-afford, than working on Sundays. To go further, one can say that God must feel cheated and insulted by such utter hypocrisy.

With 1975 being the Centenary of the Tongan Constitution, one would have thought that that was the appropriate time in which to review the Sunday Law, and other laws, in the light of

present-day conditions.

It is most unfortunate, however, that the Parliamentary Session of 1975, not unlike those of previous years, evidenced very little clear and positive thinking. Rather than examining whether some of the clauses of the Constitution, passed a hun dred years ago, needed some amendments, the parliamen tarians wasted a lot of time (and of course a lot of the taxpayers’ money) discussing trivialities such as whether long-hair is to be declared unlawful, the form of dress that they should wear on certain functions, whether divorcees should be fined etc. I often wonder why those Parliamentarians should be paid any emoluments at all!

There was, inordinately, too much attention given to the celebrations of the Centenary of the Constitution, but very little positive thinking given to the Constitution itself and its relevance to the conditions of today and tomorrow.

But what does the ordinary Tongan think of the Sunday Law?

Judging by the number of people who break it in one way or another, and by the fact that very few Tongans on work schemes in New Zealand ever refuse to earn “double time” on Sundays when asked, I believe that the Law should at the first available opportunity be amended.

I am not suggesting that the Sunday Law be changed in toto.

Rather, that only certain aspects of it be amended to suit present-day conditions. For example, that grocery stores be allowed to trade, that taxis and buses be permitted to run, that loading of exports be allowed, and so forth.

But until such a time arrives, it is still going to be never never on a Sunday. . .Except!