Facultad de Medicina

Polutele Kaho to Mateialona, 10 October 1910, Premiers' correspondence.

His selection by Tupou, however, reflected seomething more

important than their renewed friendship, not least Tupou's good

judgement - that T u 'ivakano was unquestionably the most suitable man

for the job. Once his youthful radicalism had subsided and his

forceful personality had become more disciplined, his ability to

display firm, mature and sensible leadership became more obvious.

In his recent portfolio he had turned the Police Department into the

most organised in the Government. In fact, through his speeches in

Parliament, Privy Council and Cabinet, and because of his insistence on

such matters as promptness in dealings with his Ministry of Police,

his influence had already spread outside his own department.

Unlike Tuku'aho, Sateki and Mateialona, Tu'ivakano had never

been consistently associated with any faction. His appointment as

Premier did not, therefore, automatically signify the ascendency of

any one group and it did not, as in the past, lead to the mustering

of anti-Premier forces. Not surprisingly, then, the High

Commissioner, the Consul and the Privy Council promptly approved Tupou's

choice. For the first time in the King's reign all the principal

political figures were agreed on the incumbency of the premiership;

they also agreed unanimously that Tu'ivakano should be Treasurer as

well. ^

Tupou's candidates for the other high positions were also approved.

Tungi, son of the late Tuku'aho and later to be the husband of Tupou's 5 eldest daughter Salote Mafile'o Pilolevu, became Governor of Vava'u.

Siaosi Maeakafa, illegitimate son of the late Prince Uelingatoni Ngu,

became Acting Governor of Ha'apai. Skeen remained Chief Justice and

Harcourt the Solicitor-General, though his other post as Secretary

to the Government was abolished. A new post, that of European Clerk

4 5

Tonga Government Gazette, nos.19 and 21, 16 and 22 October 1912. Cabinet Minutes# . 11 November 1913.

Scott. Vaea became Acting Minister of Police.^

In the course of reprimanding Campbell and punishing Mateialona,

the British Government and Tupou had produced not a new system, but

a new understanding. Campbell had jolted the British Government out

of its sloppy paternalism and forced it to develop a more considered

attitude towards Tonga; this automatically reduced Tonga's political

problems. A menacing Britain was politically disruptive; a neutral

Britain was reassuring. Within Tonga, Tupou's current triumphs were

winning him back the respect and face he had lost. The ministers

saw that they and the Consul were more dispensable than the monarch.

They therefore embarked with the Consul and the King on an

unprecedented period of co-operation. The King was, not surprisingly,

a different man - probably for the first time the political climate of

Tonga was to his liking.

That Tupou was again in command of the Government was soon obvious

Firstly Tu i 'ivakano kept him informed of and consulted him on routine

business. While visiting Vava'u and Ha'apai in November 1912, for

example, T u 'ivakano sent the King a detailed report of his activities;

he did the same in mid-1913 when his visited the two Niuas. In

February 1913 he had asked Tupou's opinion on the proposal that the

Government should pay j:6 for the board of a civil servant then in Fiji

on government business (the King supported the proposal and it was

implemented). In May 1915 the Premier asked Tupou for his opinion on

Scott's request for an increase in salary. As T u 'ivakano told Tupou,

he believed that the monarch should be fully informed, especially on

6

financial matters.

Tupou also became more involved in policy making. This was

because Tu'ivakano, who prepared the agendas for Privy Council and

Cabinet, sent all policy matters as well as many administrative ones

to the Privy Council. Previously Ordinances, for example, although

they had always been finalized in Privy Council, had not always

originated there; especially while the Consul attended Cabinet

meetings many Ordinances had been suggested and rejected in Cabinet,

the decisions being only formally taken in Privy Council. The same

had been true of the annual and Supplementary Estimates, which had

been effectively decided in Cabinet. Now all policy matters went first 7

to the Privy Council and were ultimately settled there. Minutes

of the Cabinet, which now dealt almost exclusively with requests for

land leases, civil servants' leave applications, permits to drink 0

alcohol and minor appeals, were now always sent to Tupou. Thus

Tupou's suspicions against Cabinet as the place that bred opposition

schemes against the King were dispelled. For all these reasons Tupou's

relationship with the various government departments was very relaxed.

Tu'ivakano also knew how to handle the King. He was respectful

and fair, but firm. In 1913, when Tupou again asked Cabinet to define

his estates, the Premier pointed out to him that the issue was a

controversial one and that it was not the time to raise it. In 1914

Tu'ivakano willingly approved the King's claim to have the fare of

his daughter's chaperone paid when she escorted Salote back to 9

Auckland. When Tupou claimed for himself the land and building

Cabinet Minute Books, 1911-18; Privy Council Minutes, 1910-17.

Cabinet Minute Books, 1911-18.

at Pikula, on the other hand, Tu'ivakano objected, telling the King

that the property belonged to the Government and was not therefore

at the monarch's disposal. Tupou took the Premier's advice to assess

what Fatafehi has spent on Pikula and approach the Government to pay him

t h a t . ^ Similarly, when Tupou failed in 1915 to call a Privy

Council meeting the Premier had requested, Tu'ivakano sent him an effective

reminder of his 'humble wish' that the meeting should take pla c e . ^

The first substantial evidence of a new British attitude was the

marked reduction in the number of matters raised in Cabinet and Privy

Council by the Consul. Representations on behalf of Europeans were

fewer and matters that were raised were couched more in the form of

suggestions and less of demands. Following a polite suggestion by

I. McOwan, Campbell's successor as Acting Agent and Consul, the Privy

Council passed in January 1913 an Ordinance requiring all tax allotment 12

owners to plant 200 coconuts. In 1917, at the prompting of Consul