PRINCIPIOS FUNDAMENTALES DE LA DEFENSA PROPIA VERBAL

in the Palace. The Palace residents, however, protested to Kupu that

4 5 6

Fiji Timesj 1 April 1893 ,

Kupu to Tuku'aho, 19 February 1893, Premiers' correspondence.

that it was disrespectful to turn the palace upside down while Tupou I

was still lying in it. Tuku'aho had also asked Sunia Mafile'o and

Sateki Veikune to audit the Royal finances, and this was already under 7

way before Taufa'ahau arrived at Nuku'alofa.

Promptly at 3 p.m. on 6 March the funeral procession of Tupou I,

watched by almost the whole of the kingdom, left the Palace for 8

Mala‘ekula. Greatly adding to the pomp and attraction of the occasion

was the handsome figure of 'King Taufa'ahau', in military uniform,

walking alone a short distance behind the bier with the dignitaries of

his new realm behind him. In this, his first official public appearance,

his subjects were satisfied with the appropriateness and dignity of his

bearing. At the funeral ceremony, the Royal Chaplain and President of the

Free Church of Tonga, the Reverend J. B. Watkin, voicing the people's

feelings about the late King and his successor, paid tribute to the sun

that had set and hailed the new one that had risen.

After the funeral came the post-burial tasks and responsibilities,

which lasted until the end of the official period of mourning or

tccpu

on 1 June. The grave must be visited daily, and its mound had to be

completed before the final post-burial ceremony. Although many of the

mourners had gone home, a great number of them, particularly the chiefs,

were staying until the set period of providing company for the bereaved

was over, and they continued the drain on the King's resources and time.

There were also the condolence gifts to deal with, as well as the variety

of post-burial kava ceremonies the new King had to attend. Finally, in

the second week of May, came the

Zanu kitikiZi

7 8

Sateki to Tuku'aho, 26 February 1893, Premiers' correspondence.

with smooth, black, volcanic stones and their smearing with cccoanut oil.

After the funeral, and again especially when the official mourning

period or tapu was over, Taufa'ahau had to attend to Tupou I's unfinished

business and commitments. There was, for example, the arrival of a 9 buggy ordered by the late King from Cousins and Cousins of Auckland as

well as an account of £39 at Mr Plesner's of the Kautaha at F a s i . ^

Taufa' ahau returned the buggy to New Zealand and paid the debt in November

1893.11

At the death of Tupou I, Tonga, for the first time, had to come to

terms with Western principles and formalities associated with the succession

of a new monarch, some of which were at odds with her customs. On the

principle that the King never dies, the English Government announces

the death of a monarch and proclaims the succession of his heir at

the same time. Under Tongan custom, however, the dead monarch is still

King until after he is buried. In order to get around this problem and

to enable the execution of Government business before Tupou I was

buried and Taufa'ahau installed as King, Government declared that

Taufa'ahau had succeeded but did not officially make him King.

After this ambiguous compromise, the Government and the chiefs

turned to another new problem, the official ceremony of installing the

King. As the first monarch to succeed to a Christian Tonga, and by means

of a European political system, it was inevitable that Taufa'ahau should

Cousins and Cousins to Tuku'aho, 12 August 1893, Premiers' correspondence.

S. Plesner to Tupou II, 3 June 1893 and Receipt of Payment No 153, 1 November 1893, Royal correspondence.

Fiji Times3 13 May 1893. 11

have what Tonga had not experienced before, a Christian, Western-style

installation as King, and a coronation. For these events, the Tongan

Government and the chiefs relied entirely on the advice of Europeans

such as Beckwith-Leefe, the German Vice-Consul W. Treskow, J.B. Watkin

and Bishop Ollier of the Roman Catholic Church, none of whom had ever

participated in the appointment or coronation of a monarch. The result

was a ceremony only superficially similar to the English coronation

ceremonies it was supposed to imitate.

At a separate official ceremony on 9 March, attended by local

dignitaries such as the British Consul, Taufa'ahau,using a newly coined 12

oath, was sworn in as King of Tonga. Eight days later, in a half-hour 13

ceremony in the Royal Chapel, the coronation took place. Since a

principal guest such as Beckwith-Leefe was not officially invited until

the morning of the same day, the coronation could not have been very

well organised.

Before the appointed hour of 1 p.m., all the guests, who had been

saluted by the guard of honour at the front door were already in their

places, and the interested spectators sat in the shade in the palace and

adjoining grounds. At 1.16 Taufa'ahau entered the chapel through his

private door. Just before he did so, and probably at his own intimation,

the spectators had rushed into the church filling up all the vacant

chairs and floor space, and forecasting the bold independence which the

new King was to demonstrate again and again towards Tongan society and

its elite.

Once Taufa*ahau was seated on the throne, the coronation service

began. After reading several passages from the bible, Watkin descended

12

Tuku'aho to R. Beckwith-Leefe, 9 March 1893; R. Beckwith-Leefe to Tuku'aho, 9 March 1893, W.P.H.C. Archives.

Tuku'aho to R. Beckwith-Leefe, 17 March 1893, W.P.H.C. Archives. 13

from the pulpit and walked towards Taufa'ahau. Picking up the crown

from a cushion on the right hand side of the throne he placed it on the

new King 's head, addressing him as King George of Tonga. At that

instant the gunners fired the Royal Salute. Watkin then replaced the

crown on its cushion and returned to the pulpit from where, in a speech

of about ten minutes, he called Tupou I's successor by his chosen title,

King George Tupou II.

After his speech, Watkin joined the congregation and the brass band

played several airs for them. When this ended, the chapel bells were

rung and His Majesty left the way he had entered. Probably because the

mourning period for Tupou I's death had not ended, the coronation

celebration consisted only of more brass band music in the Palace grounds

and fireworks at night. (As was obvious from the form it took, the

coronation of Tupou II was literally only the placing of the crown on

his head. However, despite its incorrect representation of Western

coronation ceremonies , the Tongans, ignorant of this fact may be supposed

to have been greatly awed by the whole affair.)

As a clear reflection of the fact that the European coronation of