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CAPITULO 12: LA REFORMA CATÓLICA
Hunter then decided that the site of the Consulate was not large
enough and on the first week of March 1901 he applied to Sateki
for some of the land adjacent to it.~* After consultations between
Tupou, Sateki and Fatafehi, it was decided that the Minister of 0 Lands should negotiate with Hunter's neighbours for the extra land.
On 18 March Fatafehi sent Mateialona to Sateki with the information
that Hunter's neighbours had refused to co-operate. Fatafehi
then suggested to the Premier that Hunter be given Baker's former
home, Mala'e'alca, as well as the land adjacent to it, which
belonged to the Governor of 'Eua, Sipu. In return Sipu was to receive 7
the existing British Consulate.
Only two weeks beforehand, however, Sateki had sent to Auckland
for Emil Hutter's brother-in-law, Edmund Lowe, to come to Tonga to Q
a government appointment and to stay in this choice house.
Sir G.T.M. O'Brien to Colonial Office, 1 May 1901, F.O. 58, Foreign Office Papers.
Sateki to Tupou, 18 March 1901, Royal correspondence.
Ibid.
Ibid. 8
about it and he also suggested how the existing British Consulate 9
could be enlarged. Tupou probably accepted this suggestion, for
the Premier then went ahead and obtained the approval of the people
concerned to give up their land for the British Consulate.1(1 Why
Hunter's neighbours changed their minds cannot be ascertained, but
it now began to appear as though Hunter had had his eyes on
Mala'e'aloa all along because it was only half the distance of the
existing Consulate from the Palace. He and his friend Fatafehi
may have even discussed this before the latter had suggested
Mala'e'aloa to Sateki. Thus it was that Hunter now refused to keep
the old site and, through his representations, O'Brien asked Tupou
to give the Consul all the assistance necessary for the selection
and acquisition of a site within easy distance of the Palace. But
Tupou, still appearing to accept Sateki's reasons for not giving
Mala'e'aloa to Hunter, offered O'Brien the alternative site of Pangai.
Traditionally the grounds for ceremonial and public occasions, Pangai
was a costly compromise, and its loss was sure to arouse strong
objections from the Tongans. Perhaps for that reason, Tupou, on
6 July, finally agreed to give Mala'e'aloa and Sipu's land to Hunter.1
But the controversy over the new British Consulate was not yet
over. O'Brien had insisted that Sipu must agree to give up his
land before the new Consulate would be surveyed. The independently
minded Sipu, however, took two months to agree to this.
Ibid. 10
Ibid. 11
days later he was to be paid £500 by Government and be given another
piece of land.^“
On 7 September, when the Government had not paid him his money,
Sipu remained on his land and complained to Hunter about the 13
Government's failure to keep its word. To prevent any further
complications Fatafehi asked Sipu to move, promising that his money
would be ready for him two days later. Sipu refused to do this,
then immediately left for 'Eua. Eventually Sipu settled his
differences with Government, but at that stage another complication
arose. In the map of the proposed Consulate that he had sent
O'Brien, Hunter had included two small sites, which Tupou and Sipu
had clearly told him were the homes of an old widow and an old man 14
by the name of Sioape. Hunter, however, was determined to
have as few neighbours as possible, and he was glad that the
proposed Consulate had the cemetery on its western side and the sea
on its northern side; he wanted no homes between him and Mount Zion.
Finally, when H.M.S. Torch arrived in Tonga in the last week of
September, Hunter took the captain with him to the Palace and
together they were able to make Tupou give Hunter all the land he had
asked f o r . ^
12
13 14
Sipu to Fatafehi T u 'ipelehake, 3 September 1901, W.P.H.C. Archives; Sipu to W.H. Hunter, 7 September 1901, Palace Office Collection.
Ibid.
Tupou to W.H. Hunter, 20 September 1901, W.P.H.C. Archives. W.L. Allardyce to Tupou, 10 October 1901, Royal correspondence; Sateki to Fatafehi T u 'ipelehake, 25 September 1901, Premiers' correspondence.
started off in this way, the King and the Premier would have been
suspicious of the British Consul right from the start, whoever he
might have been. Both the terms of the recently established
formal relationship between Tonga and Great Britain, and the
circumstances by which they had come about, would have guaranteed
this. The Consul, on the other hand, now that he was responsible
for all the Europeans and was aware of the British desire not to
give any foreign power, especially Germany, an excuse to challenge
Britain's predominance in Tonga by claiming that their citizens were
not satisfactorily and fairly taken care of by the British Government,
was compelled to use all his influence to protect the Europeans'
interests. When to this was added the recent extension of the area
of consular control of European affairs and Hunter's efficiency and
dedication to his job, it was inevitable that consular contact with
the Tongan authorities on behalf of the Europeans would increase.
As it turned out, this was also going to lead to greater consular
interference in the internal affairs of Tonga, on the grounds that
the state .of internal affairs affected the welfare of the Europeans.
This meant that the Tongan Government, already under severe strain,
was going to experience an intensification of official British
pressure, which was the kind it was least able to absorb or control.
On the other hand, the Tongan authorities, especially Tupou and
Sateki, were not likely to submit without resistance or to accept even
sound British advice with anything more than their usual skepticism.
The scene was set for more numerous and more serious confrontations.
Whatever chances there might have been of minimizing this were
virtually removed by two things. Firstly, Emil Hutter, already the
man with the greatest influence on Tupou and even more so on Sateki,
opposed to any sign of European influence other than his own on the
Tongan Government. He persistently reminded Tupou and Sateki that the
Tongan Government was independent and not answerable to any one, that the
British had no right to interfere in Tonga's affairs, and that the
German Government was hovering somewhere in the background and waiting
to rescue Tonga from the British bullies. He kept emphasising to the
King and to the Premier that Europeans had no rights in Tonga, that
they were not needed and that the Tongans were perfectly capable of
running their own Government.^ In expressing these views, Hutter was
basically motivated by his desire to be the only European influence on
the Tongan Government so that he could continue his exploitation of Tonga
for his own benefit.
Secondly, the new Anglo-Tongan Treaty, along with Hunter's apparent
efficiency and confidence, caused an immediate rush in European requests
for consular intervention in claims upon the Tongan Government and people.
One of the most complicated cases was that of Mrs Krause, widow of a
naturalised British subject. In 1898 she had arranged with one
'Esafe to rent part of his land in Nuku'alofa for twenty-one years at 17
£20 per annum. They explained their arrangement to the Minister of
Lands, who assured them that it satisfied all the requirements of the
law and would be approved. On this assurance Mrs Krause gave 'Esafe
£80. However, when Fatafehi, as he was required to do by law,
submitted their application to Cabinet, Sateki caused the lease to be raised
to £50 a year and no reasons were given. When Mrs Krause appealed for a
reduction to within the £7 to £15 a year normally levied on European
trading sites, Cabinet^again acting on Sateki's advice, replied that it 18
could not alter a ruling. For the following three
16 17 18
Extracts from Correspondence between E. Hutter and Sateki, 1901-4. Cabinet Minute Book, 1898.
Beckwith-Leefe unsuccessfully pressed Tupou, Sateki and Cabinet to
reduce her rent. Soon after Hunter's arrival Mrs Krause took her
case again to him but when Hunter wrote to Tupou the King 19
repeated what Cabinet had said in 1898.
Some time betwen 1901 and 1903 Mrs Krause, perhaps now
convinced that any more attempts to reduce her rent would be useless,
arranged with Tevita Polutele Kaho, the heir to the noble title of
Tu'iyakano, to live on his land in the trading centre of Nuku'alofa 20