Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1909-02-17
EDWORDSAT TONGA.
OUR CORRESPONDENT VISITS
COUNTRY OF COMIC
OPERA"
Graphic Description of Another
South Sea Island, and the Port
of NukaulOfa, Tonga.

Naukaulofa, Tonga, Feb. 5, 1909.
month ago | left New Caledonia,
and after spending a week in New
Zealand have reached this delight
full port. Four days out from Auck-
'landZzfour delightful days of sum
mer/ seas and pleasant voyaging-
and the steamer glides alongside the
wharf at Nukaulofa. To visit the
South Seas without visiting Tonga,
Samoa and Fiji would be like see
ing the play of Hamlet with Hamlet
left out. 1t is for this reason thareI
am now here, enroute 10 ouA.a.Ia
and Borneo by way of the Solomon
islands.
Some imaginative traveller has
given this country the title of the
Country of Comic OPERA" and GER
tainly the name seems to fit. The
comparison is irresistible and forces
itself on everyone who calls at this
quaint port. Seen from the sea the
town looks like a toy, or bit of stage
scenery. Its odd, stiff pines, with
foliage like huge hair brushes: vivid
green lagoon lying within the foam
ing bar of coral reef; strangely
lowered white palace placed just up
on the shore; all IL" a.
set scene on stage, and as one
walks up the long wharf the stage
seems to be ready, in shape of a
to the sea, all along the frontage
of the town. Here are the great,
cedar-like avava trees, the sacred
tree of Tonga, found nowhere else
in the South Seas, and familiar to
all stamp collectors on the stamps
of the kingdom. Here are the beau
tiful iron woods of the Pacific, with
foliage as delicate as asparagus
leaves and wood as hard and last
ing as the metal after which it is
named.
The Kings Palace and the Chapel
Royal are the two most imposing
edifices in the town, placed as they
are, side by side right on the beach,
but on nearer approach one be-
comes again impressed with the
stage scenery idea, for it is found
that both are painted wood. The
sudden appearance of half a dozen
soldiers, attired in scarlet cloth
coats, black trousers and smart for
age caps, who march across the
front of the scene, silently and rap
idly and disappear in the gardens,
makes one sure that it is some play
that he sees. In addition to king
and parliament the islands boast of
a Prime Minister, Chancellor OF
the Exchequer and a Chief Justice.
1t did look rather odd to see a
brown Prime Minister, bare footed,
sitting at the head of the wharf,
dangling his bare legs and eating
banana as the steamer drew along
side. Not long ago the Chancellor
| of the Exchequer was wading In the
| bay, digging CLAIMS, when he dropped
the key to the treasury in the
water, among the corals and eels,
| thereby paralyzing the entire imam
cial system of the government until
| body of seekers succeeded almcSS
miraculously in finding the lost key.
1t all seems queer but when we
| consider that less than ninety years
| ago this was one of the most savage
people in all of the South Seas. and
| that cannibalism was practiced up
| to within forty years, the progress
| has really been remarkable One-
| One is struck with the absence or
hats among the people, for 1t is
against one not a chief to wear a
hat. These articles of distinction are
| gaily decorated when the chiefs
wear them, but the common peo-
pie content themselves with put
ting flowers in their hair and be-
hind their ears, like the people of
] Tahiti. So far as dress goes.
however, these people are far adj
vanced, and there is none of the
loin cloth apparel such as seen In
the other islands visited. The men
all wear smart clothes, trousers and
shirts, with gay sashes around their
waists, while the women wear HOW
| ing robes similar to those worn In
the Hawaiian islands. Their feet
and legs are bare for GOODNESS, put
| otherwise they are dressed so prop
erly that they would not offend the
most fastidious. They love gay COL
ors and each select those most 10
his liking.
Both men and women are tall
and massive of build, and the men
especially walk with an air of pride.
In fact so marked is this walk that
| it is called the "Tongan swagger.'
| Tongan women enjoy better times
than those of any other race of the
! South Seas, for the men have not
made them beasts of burden but
tighten their troubles as much as
possible. They say that work makes
! the women ugly and they prefer to
have them beautiful. In conse-
quence of this feeling much of the
housework, even, is done by the
men. All of the heavy outdoor
work, such as is done by women OF
| other islands, is done by men who
do not consider such work Is de-
grading. c..on.o = uswords