Book
The diversions of a prime minister
W. Blackwood and Sons • Edinburgh And London • Published In 1894 • Pages:
By: Thomson, Basil.
Abstract
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.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2006
- Region
- Oceania
- Sub Region
- Polynesia
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Government Official
- Document Rating
- 3: Good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent
- Analyst
- Martin J. Malone; 1978
- Field Date
- August 1890 - June 1891
- Coverage Date
- ca. 1850-1891
- Coverage Place
- Tonga
- Notes
- By Basil Thompson
- LCCN
- 05012318
- LCSH
- Tongans