The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-05-05
LOVE IN TONGA
Woes Of King George and Two
MaidGnS.
DELAY IN A MARRIAGE
Treasurer Decamped with the
State FundS-A Comedy-A
German Firm.

| VICTORIA, Oh. c., April 20.-Such
"a comedy drama as the stage has never
lseen was being enacted in the island
Kingdom of Tonga when the just-arriv
led steamer Aorangi sailed north, the
least including his Majesty King George
ITahoa l. two rival claimants for the
Kings heart and hand, German finan-
lcial firm anxious for settlement of
State debts or for the dismissal of the
Prime Minister; said first Minister,
whom the King will not permit TO re-
Isign; a Royal Treasurer who absconds
with the contents of the State strong
box; the Minister of Police Gather of
one of the brides-elecD, who pursues
the peculating Treasurer, with soldiers
courtiers, ct al, TO complete.
| The scene of the dramatic action
shifts from the palace to the State
Treasury with its rified safe; thence to
the royal yacht, on which the Treas
urer fees the kingdom and is shipwreck
| ed; again to the Samoan forest, where
the fugitive evades pursuing justice;
and back again to the palace for the
sad finale-the monarch making an
nouncement of the postponement Of the
wedding to his weeping fancees, for
the reason that (being robbed) he can
not afford matrimonial bliss. The
whole situation is reminiscent of the
play of action in ''The Gondoliers.
To begin with, Tonga is practically
bankrupt The natives are largely in
idebted to a financial and commercial
firm which, through the German Vice
consul, seeks to induce the King to dis
miss his Prime Minister. The latter,
seeing no especial fun in being buffer
to the throne, readily resigns and the
King refuses to accept the resignation.
This is the first act, which may bear
the caption ''Statecraft.'
The second is a curious admiXture of
love and lucre. His Majesty reflects
THAT "tis not good for man to be
falone" and resolves upon taking to
himself a royal helpmeet. Then arises
a difficulty, for the Kings fancy is at
ltractad by two maidens, both passing
fair and between whom there is little
Ito choose His Majesty is equal to the
emergency He decides to take both,
lone bride being catalogued as Lamoa,
Ia woman Of Biba' (Which has a curl
Ious Biblical sound about i0, and the
Iother Fabinia OF Tonga, the daughter
of Kubu, Minis5er-General of Police.
Then into the clear sky Of love and
happiness came the financial clouds
THE Treasury, which is thought to con-
covered to be empty, and the salaries
Iof officials have not been paid for
months. The Treasury safe at Haapai
lis opened and is found to be minus the
ISIS 900 ipt should contain While the ma
tive Treasurer, who holds the key to
1.-THE safe is discovered to have helped
himself not only TO the money of the
king, but also to the royal yacht, with
(which he sets sail for Samoa.
That the action of the comedy-drama
may not lag there is then the exciting
lby-incident of the pursuit to Apia of
1.-THE defaulting Treasurer, who escaped
lin the Kings yacht, but ran it on a
lcoral reef in fierce tropical gale; the
lcapture of the double-dyed thief on the
lbeach: his subsequent escape from an
Insecure native Jail and his flight into
1.-The forest; and then the return to Ton
lga, empty-handed, of the Minister OF
Police. who naturally feels special
personal interest in the case by reason
of the prospective matrimonial alliance
lin which his daughter and the King are
ito take principal parts.
Act three is lamentably weak, as the
scene of he unhappy King, sorroWfully
deferring the fulfillment of his ante
matrimonial vows on the ground OF
poverty, makes neither a heroic nor a
lcheerful tableau to precede the hnal
curtain-especially not when one con-
lsiders how little in the line Of milliners
and dressmaking bills marriage in Ton
ga involves, and therefore how utterly
|pitiful must be his Majesty's plight.
And after all this GREATNESS nara
Tive of love and intrigue, finance, dis
honesty and hairbreadth escapes, the
Tonga correspondent naively remarks:
The residents of Tonga consider the
present the warmest season for thirty
years past"