A COLONY OF FLYING-FOXES. 91 already they were asking why they should not elect one of themselves as President of their "Conference," and why their salaries should be lower than that of their white brother. From this it is only a step to a new and original interpretation of the Scriptures, and to a bastard Christianity like the Hauhauism of the Maories and the Tuka of Fiji. We rode Our three great fonos were a decided success. first to Hihifo with an informal escort of mounted police and clerks, not excepting the faithful spy, Peter. Tungi, being past the age and figure for equestrian exercise, travelled in an American buggy, which stuck fast every now and then in the deep mud caused by the rains, while we rode on at the untiring canter that is the easiest pace for Tongan ponies. Few of our escort had girths, and not all had saddles, but this did not seem to incommode them in the least. We reached Kolowai, the chief town, plastered with mud, and halted under the celebrated colony of flying-foxes. They were a revolting sight. Four great banyan and ironwood trees shaded the road, and these were covered with the living fruit so thickly clustered that the branches drooped with their weight. Thousands upon thousands hung there from their hind-claws, sleeping, crawling, squealing, quarrelling, stretching their uncanny sails, and scratching their light - brown heads with a winged claw. The leaves and the grass beneath the trees had long ago been killed by their unwholesome presence; and the stench was so overpowering that we had to edge to windward. They are tabu-Heaven knows why, for they do immense damage to the plantations— and they are never shot at. Formerly, it is said, they frequented some Toa-trees near to the sea, but the great battle fought there in May 1799 frightened them away, and they chose to emigrate to the large trees in the centre of the town. Ata told me that at sunset half go away to feed, while the others keep guard during their absence, but that they never fail to come back about midnight to take their turn of sentry-duty. Without vouching for this as a scientific fact, I can bear witness that they fly beyond Nukualofa, thirteen miles away, for hundreds of them were shot at nightfall as they flew in a continuous string towards the Government banana plantations near the lagoon. One thus brought down had a little one clinging to her body, befurred and bewinged, a perfect miniature of its mother. In a few days it became perfectly tame, and at night showed no inclination to leave the verandah where it hung in the daytime. The fono was held opposite Ata's house. Only taxpayers were summoned, but they numbered several hundreds, and included a few women—widows-holding taxallotments. They formed a compact semicircle, each bringing a cocoa-nut-leaf to sit upon. On the outside of the ring a few policemen, armed with thick batons, stood erect in attitudes of stern attention. We, the authorities, sat in a row in the verandah and addressed the crowd in turn, Tukuaho in mood of suave conditional, I in bald indicative, and Ata, their chief, in uncompromising imperative. Taxes,—we must have taxes, or-many terrible things would happen. Tonga would lose her independence for one thing, and the police would come and sell by auction the property of defaulters for another. I am bound to confess that the latter threat appeared to be the more dire of the two. Having lunched at the sacred enclosure of Kanokubolu, the scene of the massacre in 1800 in which the recreant missionary Vason took part, we rode off along the shore, leaving Tungi to water the seed we had sown. The meeting at Mua was a far more picturesque affair. Five or six hundred people were assembled in a wide circle, six deep, under the shade of the historical banyantrees beneath which Captain Cook sat when he witnessed the Great Inaji on the 17th June 1777.1 Acting on my colleague's advice, I gave some sensational instances of the squandering of money by our predecessor, and this part of my speech was listened to with breathless attention. As I told of the sums spent on cab-hire in Auckland, on boots and shoes, and on strong liquors, even Mr Baker's supporters looked discomfited. It was curious to note the alteration in Tukuaho's style when addressing his own people at Mua. Elsewhere his style was persuasive: here he took no trouble to give reasons or explanations. He simply asserted facts, and his people accepted them. He is a fine speaker, less polished in delivery than his shrewd old father, Tungi, but more manly and open. The audience was enthusiastic-even old Nuku cried " Malo!" as if he had forgotten that he was in disgrace. He had advised his people not to pay their taxes, an offence that would have landed him in jail if he had been less aristocratic; but being a member of the Upper House, he could be threatened only with impeachment for conduct unbecoming a Nobele. I watched him carefully at this meeting, and decided that he was mad, but not sufficiently so to be harmless, for he is an inveterate talker. When Tongan 1 See illustration on p. 317. troubles were at their worst in 1886 Nuku held a fono, and thus addressed his people : "All the great nations of the earth have made treaties with Tonga. We have a treaty with Germany, a treaty of mutual love and respect. We have a treaty with France: this is for the mutual protection of religion. We have a treaty with America: this is to secure freedom of trade, so that a Tongan may go and sell things in America, just as an American may come and sell things in Tonga. And we have a treaty with Britain, but that is a very different thing: Tonga and Britain are like two cocks, each standing on his own dunghill, trying to raise his head above the other and crow him down!" The fono at Nukualofa was held at sunrise, and I was awakened by an excited policeman who came to say that chiefs and people were assembled and waiting for me. Launched hungry, sleepy, and uncomfortable upon an audience tired of waiting, I did not make a brilliant speech. By holding these fonos we had now done all that lay in our power to hasten the payment of taxes pending the arrival of the king from Vavau. We were in great straits for want of money, for we had undertaken to pay the salaries regularly from the day on which we assumed office, and hitherto not a penny of poll-tax had been taken at the windows. The Government was being carried on with the Customs dues alone, which, regular though they were, did not suffice to meet the current demands upon the Treasury, exclusive of salaries. But we could do no more, and it was high time to agree upon the line of policy to be pursued to promote unanimity among our |