THE NATIVE PRIME MINISTER.

35

charged with that offence before the police court; but Kubu, the new Minister of Police, who was then Police

Magistrate, was not a creature of Mr Paker, and dismissed the case. This would not do at all, and Mr Baker

ordered them to be tried by court-martial. How a man who has not yet enlisted can be tried by court-martial was a technicality that did not trouble him. He sent an order to Tukuaho to form a court, but Tukuaho replied that he would like to have the order in writing. Mr Baker committed the order to paper. The court sat, and the men were found guilty of refusing to take the oath with their eyes shut. A messenger was despatched to Mr Baker to inquire what sentence was to be pronounced. The verbal answer was, "Two years." But Tukuaho wanted to have this in writing too, and Mr Baker, grumbling at his pertinacity, wrote the order on a half sheet of note-paper. All this showed no very high degree of intelligence on the part of the commandant; but the surprising incident was that he carefully preserved both letters, feeling that some day they might be useful. Many months later the High Commissioner, Sir C. Mitchell, held the inquiry before alluded to, and Mr Baker was examined as to the reason for the monstrous sentence inflicted on these men. He knew, he said, nothing whatever about it; indeed he thought it severe himself, but, being inflicted by a court-martial, he had no power to interfere. Then Tukuaho was asked why he had pronounced such a sentence for no offence at all, and he said that he would not have passed such a sentence without written orders. Could he produce these orders? He thought he could, and went to fetch them. The Premier's face meanwhile had been undergoing a change; he was evidently feeling very uncomfortable. When the letters were produced, he said that he had quite forgotten having written them, but that they now refreshed his

THE PREMIER AT HOME.

37

memory, and he glanced at Tukuaho in a very peculiar

way.

Soon after this Tukuaho was relieved of his command, and made mayor of his father's town, Mua, some twelve miles from the capital. He had occasion to see the Premier upon matters connected with his duties. The great man was busily writing in his office. After waiting many minutes Tukuaho rose to go, saying that he saw the Premier was engaged. "Sit where you are," replied Mr Baker, “until I am ready,"—and he wrote on as if the safety of the nation depended on his pen. At last he stopped writing, and swung round in his chair. Tukuaho had heard from others of this mode of inspiring awe, and was in nowise disconcerted; he returned the First Minister's fixed gaze. We are alone: tell me what cause for ill-will you have against me." Tukuaho raised his eyebrows with a mild surprise, and intimated that he did not understand the question, but had come to ask when he was to distribute tax-allotments in Mua. "You know well enough what I mean. Why did you betray me?" said the Premier, coming to the point. "I have much love for you," answered Tukuaho, " and I want you to tell me about Fifita's allotment." From that day Tukuaho was a marked man, but one to be conciliated rather than threatened.

I found him in his new house still unfinished. A ngatu screen was suspended across the room, behind which a mosquito net was visible. A lamp stood upon a trade box, and the corner of the room was piled high with official-looking papers and torn envelopes in hopeless confusion. I made a mental note of an admonition to be

administered to my colleague on this head, for any papers left in a Tongan's house are certain to be read by his retainers, who will straightway bruit their contents at every kava-ring in the town, supplying the gaps with imaginative but sensational details. Tungi was sitting in the middle of the floor, and rose to greet me with his usual courtly grace. He seated me on a box, and went to wake his son, who was sleeping off his headache in the mosquitonet. Tukuaho presently emerged looking very unwell, but delighted to see me. He has the same massive head and features as his father; and though only thirty-two, he already shows signs of attaining the ample proportions that no Tongan chief seems to escape. His face is plea

sant, though the eyes are set at a peculiar Mongolian angle, very far apart, and the eyelids habitually droop over them. His manners err if anything on the side of showing too great a desire to please, but his conversation. in his own language is very intelligent. I had hoped that he and some of my other colleagues could speak English, but I now found that their English was "pidgin,” and quite unsuited for conducting diplomatic negotiations with exactitude. It was a serious disappointment, for my knowledge of Tongan was slender, and my experience in Fiji and elsewhere had taught me never to trust to an interpreter in dealing with natives. I had before me the necessity of mastering the language sufficiently to speak in public before I could really begin my work, but fortunately my knowledge of Fijian stood me in good stead ; for though the two languages differ more than French differs from English, yet the idiom and metaphor is much alike, as one might expect among races who live under

THE DANGERS OF CABINET MEETINGS.

39

similar conditions and have occasional intercourse with one another. Henceforward I devoted all my spare moments to the study of the language, particularly that form of it in use towards the chiefs, which may be called the language of respect: the mastery of such nuances gives the appearance of far greater facility than I was likely to acquire in the limited time at my disposal. Before I left Tonga the necessity for using the language in public, and for drafting the new code of law, had given me considerable fluency; and I was able to realise the vast superiority and richness of Polynesian as compared with Melanesian languages.

My two colleagues were in a state of the deepest dejection. They were inclined to be reticent, and told me that they could make no changes without consulting the king. I said that one change at least did not require the sanction of his Majesty-namely, that the members of the Cabinet should meet together periodically to agree upon a common policy, and that none of them should take any important action without consulting his colleagues. This, I explained, was the rule of action in every Cabinet in the world, and it was, moreover, provided for in the Tongan Constitution. They seemed much disturbed at this announcement, and Tukuaho replied that it was a new thing in Tonga, and that his colleagues would not understand it, but would say that he was arrogating to himself the powers of the king. He said that already the Hahavea chiefs, Maafu and Lavaka, actuated by jealousy, were stirring up the people against him though he had as yet done nothing, and had said bitter things in public about being subject to his family: that Tungi,