Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-01-13

kindly translated into English for me
By the way, this court interpreter is a
veteran of our civil war. He came to
these islands soon after the war
closed, married a native woman by
whom he had large family, and has
resided here since. though he is a
widower TOW. He translated all tie
Tongan laws into English. One day he
showed me through all the department
buildings, law courts, etc He informs
me that 81 per cent of all the natives
can read and write. which strikes me
as being a very high average for a SO
called uncivilized people.
They have one very good law oD
these islands and also at Samoa. It is
that per on to land must have
through ticket, or deposit e10 in
money with the customs officer. which
/ is refunded if one departs inside of six
HsoHtils. This Is to prevent persons
getting stranded with no means to get
away with, and so become charge on
the people. This law was made neces-
sary by o many men in former times.
lanCiGg here broke and quartering
themselves on the natives till sent
away at the expense of the govern
ment.
Mirthful Natives.
During my whole stay in New Zea
land at no place nor on any occasion
did see any general manifestation of
the existence of any spirit of mirth
among the people, while here it was
very evident. In all the natives, from
the youngest to the oldest, on all oc-
casions and everywhere, they had a
pleasant greeting for each other, Of
ten accompanied by a joke and
hearty, spontaneous laugh. 1t did me
good TO see a people, once more, who
were apparently satisfied and could
laugh and grow fat" And any people
who are unable to see any JOY in life
are in sad way, generally speaking.
One reason my stay in New Zealand
was prolonged was to see if | could
discover what was the trouble there;
on the other hand it delighted me to
see this people so evidently happy and
contented
Too much cannot be said in favor of
the Tongan climate II certainly was
fine during the month l was there
dry, with occasional showers during
the night; bright, generally warm In
ne day and so cool at night as to me-
cessitate the use of a blanket-which
condition prevails, so | was informed,
from April to November, while the re-
mainder of the year never gets exces.
siyely hot or inconyeniently rainy
There are in the Tongan group about
100 islands or islets These were di :
covered in 1643 by Tasman, visited
by Captain Cook three times, he last
visit being in 1777 population about
2l,000 including $50 Europeans
| made a big mistake In not calling
ON the British governments represen-
tative residing there | allowed ms
prejudice to govern my action. Had
con idered a moment / could have
seen the situation. Here was an edu-
Gated and refined man residing where
there is only small number of white
men to meet and 3r.y s1idy one stop.
ping there for {. short time would be
welcomed heartily as a relief to the
monotony A friend informed me, on
the eve of my departure that he so ex.
pressed himself and also said he was
orry | had not called on him. ex.
pressed my regrets for making such
mistake, but it was too late then. On.
doubtedly he would have been pleased
in making my stay there more inter
e ting to me.
Quick Work.
On sunday morning the steamer
was sighted and duly announced, as
usual, by firing a cannon. As the Ton
gan law against Sunday labor is strict,
~ observed. no cargo could be dis.
charged or loaded till IL o'clock mid.
night. But the passengers all came
ashore and made thing; lively all
around. AS the boat was announced to
depart at a. m. went on board that
night One of the first cabin passen.
gers bet the purser e5 that even the
200 tons to be discharged and like
amount to load could not be done IN
that time. So en- the strike of 10
o'clock lot natives went at the under
taking with yell and l assure you
there was not much sleep after that
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