TUPOU I lived for less than 3 yrs after Bakers deportation. His immediate reaction had been to take himself off to Haapai and have nothing to do with with the administration foisted upon him by Thurston. However, the new Government, with Tukuaho as Premier and with Basil Thomson (Deputy Premier), an English officer sent by Thurston, gradually won Tupou Is confidence. The finances were stablized...religious dissension was held in check (in spite of the return of the Uesilianas xiles from Fisi) and peace and order were re-established. Moreover, although its beginning to drift inexorably into the British orbit, theres no sign that Tongas threatened by formal annexation, as Tupou I feared. He therefore returned to Tongatapu in 1891 and gave the new Government his moral support...and its in Nukualofa in Feb. 1893 that he died of pneumonia...caught after an early morning bath in the sea in accordance with his lifetime habit. Tonga mourned Tupou I for 6mos and seldom has a monarch so amply deserved the formal lamentation of his people. The Kingdom of Tongas his own creation and the independence...prosperity and well being of its people his lifetime care. Hes the greatest Tonga of his own and probably any other century...venerated by his people and greatly respected by foreigners as the Grand Old Man of the Pacific. As such hes become a source of inspiration not only to Tongans but to all Pacific Islanders.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 04:43:01 +0000
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