-English of which a schoolboy would be ashamed. I was spared this necessity by an inspiration. Had not Mr Baker himself declared that the Constitution was passed by a Tongan Legislature? It must therefore have been enacted in the native language, and the Tongan version was the original. I had only to translate it back into English, and my code would be cleansed of the phraseology that constitutes Mr Baker's principal claim to distinction.

Chief among the purely Tongan enactments of the new code were the land laws. In former times the soil of Tonga was vested in the Tui Tonga-the spiritual chief. The great nobles and small cultivators held their lands from him, and he had theoretically the right to dispossess them at will. When the office of Tui Tonga became vacant, and the title was absorbed by the present king, the people readily adopted the idea that all the land was vested in the Crown who had the power to grant holdings in return for taxes. But in 1888, Mr Baker, acting either under pressure from the chiefs, or spontaneously wishing to create a landed aristocracy, foolishly caused the king to grant large estates, which he called "inheritances," to a number of hereditary lords, who were to receive from the tenants a rental of $1 per annum for each holding of about eight acres. In dealing with the land I could not hope to rid myself of these superfluous landlords, but I could, without evoking dangerous opposition, deprive them of all power over their estates. I determined to make the Crown collect their rents and pay it over to them, while reserving to itself all rights of granting allotments and evicting tenants. Thus for all practical purposes the land still belonged to the State; for so long as the rents were

paid to the lords of the manor, the Government was virtually the landlord, and the king had voluntarily made over to the Treasury all rents due upon the lands not included within any "inheritance."

The chief obstacle that would confront. every Government in Tonga would always be the difficulty in collecting the poll-tax. The people required some stronger incentive to pay than the fear of levy by distress. To meet this difficulty I adopted an idea, suggested to me by Mr Hanslip, that the tenure of land should be made dependent upon the regular payment of taxes. I converted the polltax into a land-tax, and gave to every taxpayer the right of occupying one allotment of a fixed area, inalienable in his family so long as he and his heirs continued to discharge their debts to the State, but liable to forfeiture if for three successive years they were guilty of neglect. As each man arrived at manhood he was entitled to claim an allotment; and when the father of grown-up sons died his widow kept his allotment for her lifetime. At her death each of the sons might choose whether they would relinquish their own holdings in favour of their father's or not; but in no case could a man occupy more than one holding. Thus we combined the "Nationalisation of land" with the institution of lords of the manor. By changing the name of the tax I disposed of the necessity for claiming it from Europeans, since, being possessed of no land of their own, they could not reasonably be called upon to pay a "land-tax." The poll-tax had for many years been the chief grievance of the traders, for Europeans will pay an amount of indirect taxation which, if imposed in direct form, would cause a rebellion.

A more delicate, if less important, question was that of the marks of respect to be paid to nobles. The Tongans still cling tenaciously to certain ancient forms of respect, such as the unturbaned head and the cinctured waist in the precincts of a village. To traverse Nukualofa without a girdle would be a greater solecism than to walk the length of Piccadilly hatless and in one's shirt - sleeves. But the more servile forms of homage to chiefs-squatting at the roadside or performing moemoe-were so inconvenient that by the king's order a quasi-military salute was generally substituted. In Polynesia, to raise yourself physically above another is to lay claim to a moral superiority over him, and the introduction of horses brought a new difficulty. To sit elevated above the world on the back of a horse tends to make Tongans cheeky, just as in Fiji the consciousness of having long hair makes the most respectful man insolent to his superiors. Many years before, a law had been enacted compelling commoners to dismount when they passed a member of the Upper House, or rode past his house. The Europeans laid the blame of this enactment at Mr Baker's door; but, if I may judge from the savage tenacity with which the nobles clung to this obnoxious section, it is more probable that the law was passed in spite of him. Puerile as the restriction appears, let it not be forgotten that a primitive people is always ruled by outward forms; and wherever in the Pacific, and indeed elsewhere, a tribe is found who show no respect to their chiefs, there will be a people less susceptible to government and good order. tend towards the ridiculous.

Such laws, of course, always

A noble died, and one Jone

RESPECT FOR DIGNITIES.

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Fifita, his distant cousin, was invested with the vacant title. He was taking the air on the day of his elevation, marching in the middle of the road with the noble mien suited to his new dignity, when seven horsemen, his boon companions in humbler days, met him, showing no disposition to get out of his way.

"Why do you not dismount?" he shouted.

For answer they snatched the empty sacks that lay across their horses' withers, and, covering their faces with them, deliberately rode him down, crying through the sacks, "Recognise us, and take us to court for insolence, Jone!" His lordship laid informations against several innocent persons who were able to prove an alibi, bringing down upon his head thereby the lampoons of half Tonga; for it is fair to say that the Tongans, who have been called the "Snobs of the Pacific," are as quick to recognise and ridicule the peculiar failings of the snob as even Thackeray could have wished.

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XV.

INCUBATION.

IN February our prospects began to look brighter. The copra contract was at an end, and we were free to accept coin for taxes. In order to show defaulters that we were in earnest, we directed the police to sue those of two or three villages, and to follow the judgments with execution so closely that they should not have time to transfer their chattels to a neighbour and usher the bailiff into a house swept of its contents, as was the usual custom. After patrolling the town for half an hour with a handbell to attract buyers, the police swooped down upon the doomed house, planted the Tongan ensign before the door, and seized all the portable property in it. Then the fakatautuki (sale by the hammer) began. The mats, pots, and gnatu were knocked down without much attempt being made to obtain the highest available price, and then as many of the horses, fowls, and pigs as could be caught were sold at an average price-for the horses and poultry at eighteenpence each, and for the pigs at fifteen or twenty times that amount. There are recorded cases of horses being disposed of at these sales for threepence.