Sunday 10th September, 2006.
I learned via a prompt email from a friend in Fiji, that the King of Tonga had died, aged 88 years. He had reigned as king of the South Pacific Island Kingdom since 1965, when he succeeded his mother, Queen Salote Tupou III, who had been queen from the age of 18, in 1918.
Taufa'ahau, who was educated in Australia, and was the first Tongan to gain a university degree (BA LLB, from the University of Sydney), contributed greatly to the development of Tongan society, both while he was Crown Prince, and Premier, and after becoming king.
He was the moderniser,the innovator, attracted to novelty and grand schemes, some very practical and beneficial to improving the Tongan economy, and the lot of ordinary Tongans, and some not so practical or beneficial. A big man in all respects, Taufa'ahau Tupou IV will be missed, and his passing will allow for further democratic changes, long awaited.
The King's funeral will doubtless be a grand affair, possibly the last of its scale that Tongan society will see. It will be fascinating to watch how the kingdom develops under the next king.
[I have a lifelong connection with Tonga, having been to school in New Zealand with the late Prince Tu'ipelehake, and the Hon. Ma'ulupekotofa Tuita, having taught as a volunteer teacher in Tonga in 1969, and visited several other times, for study and for pleasure. I speak Tongan still, and would like to visit gain in the future, possibly for the coronation of the next king]
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