Book
The diversions of a prime minister
W. Blackwood and Sons • Edinburgh And London • Published In 1894 • Pages:
By: Thomson, Basil.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In 1890, the Wesleyan missionary, Shirley Waldmar Baker, who had served as premier of Tonga for the previous ten years, was ordered off the island by the British High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. His intolerance, petty tyranny, and general irresponsibility had left the kingdom of Tonga in a shambles. Thomson, a British civil servant, came to Tonga to serve as an advisor to the king and as a cabinet minister to try and repair this damage. Thomson obviously enjoyed his work in Tonga and his affection for the people provides for a sympathetic, if sometimes condescending, account of Tongan customs and character. Thompson's duty was to help build a new and stable government and his account of how he went about this provides much information on the king and his ministers, on Tongan character, and the effects of the missionaries and other Europeans in the kingdom. He also discusses such topics as crime and the police, morality, Tongan law, and provides a concise history of Tonga (pp. 291-368). One of the appendices contains excerpts from the journal of the Dutch explorer, Schouten, who, in 1616, was the first European to make contact with the Tongans. The source is a good general account of life in Tonga at the end of the nineteenth century. Thomson's experiences in other parts of the South Pacific provide interesting comparative information.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- External migration
- Traditional history
- History
- Acculturation and culture contact
- Domesticated animals
- Recreational and non-therapeutic drugs
- Accounting
- Ethnic stratification
- Classes
- Visiting and hospitality
- Etiquette
- Districts
- Chief executive
- Executive household
- Advisers to the chief executive
- Deliberative councils
- External relations
- Taxation and public income
- Public finance
- Revolution
- Legal norms
- Legal and judicial personnel
- Priesthood
- Congregations
- Religious denominations
- Organized ceremonial
- Missions
- Religious intolerance and martyrs
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Tongans
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2006
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Oceania
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Polynesia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Government Official
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 3: Good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Martin J. Malone; 1978
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- August 1890 - June 1891
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- ca. 1850-1891
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Tonga
- NotesAdditional notes
- By Basil Thompson
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 05012318
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Tongans