December 1904 They signed a document guaranteeing

Mrs Krause's right to live on Polutele's land. After paying him

more money Mrs Krause moved her house and business to this new site.

On 23 February, however, Cabinet instructed Fatafehi, again against

his will, to instruct Mrs Krause - three months before the end of

her arrangement with Polutele - to move all her property from

Polutele's land. This Fatafehi did whereupon Polutele replied that the

Government had no right to forbid him to have Mrs Krause on his land.

Knowing that the strong-willed and outspoken Polutele, who had recently

been dismissed by Sateki from the Premier's Office for insubordination,

would continue to resist Cabinet's instruction, Tupou decided

personally to persuade his former school-mate to refuse co-operation.

His Majesty even offered to make him a noble and to give him more

land if only he would sign the document limiting Mrs Krause's stay 21

on his land to their existing arrangement. Polutele,

19

W.H. Hunter to Tupou, 20 June 1901; Tupou to W.H. Hunter, 20 September 1901, Palace Office collection.

20

E. Hutter to Sateki, 10 February 1904, Extracts from

correspondence, 1901-4; Sateki to Tupou, 23 February 1904, Royal correspondence.

Tevita Polutele Kaho, confidential statement to W.H. Hunter, July 1904, W.P.H.C. Archives.

however, refused to oblige His Majesty, and thus began

an enmity that did not heal until many years later. From the

Palace Polutele went to Hunter and told him what had taken place

between him and the King. He then wrote to the High Commissioner

to use his influence to prevent Tupou and Sateki from their injustice

to him and Mrs Krause.

. According to Hunter Hutter was at the bottom of the widow's

persecution. Mrs Krause was successful in her business (as shown

by her ability to pay these very high rents, the extra amounts

of money she had given to 'Esafe and Polutele, and the approximately

£500 worth of property she had on Polutele's land). This meant

that she was a rival to the Hutters and therefore must, in what was 22 said already to be Jewish fashion, be bullied out of her business.

Moreover, some time before 1904 one of the Hutters (probably Emil, who

had been living in Auckland since 1901) had asked Mrs Krause to buy

his store off him, but the widow had refused because the shop was

badly situated for trading with the Tongans. While these may have

been good reasons for the hot-tempered Jew to hound Mrs Krause out

of business, her unusally long and severe persecution suggests that

Hutter may have had even stronger reasons for doing so, though there

is no direct evidence of these. It was not until H.M.S. Torch

visited Tonga again in the last week of October 1904 that Tupou gave

in to Hunter on Mrs Krause's case.

Soon after he started on Mrs Krause's case Hunter had had a

number of other difference with Government. His report to the

Colonial Office on Tonga's trade and commerce for 1900 was late

because he could not obtain from the Customs Department the necessary 23

information. Lee, Collector of Customs was corrupt and

W.H. Hunter to Sir H.N. Jackson, 24 July 1904, W.P.H.C. Archives

W.H. Hunter to Foreign Office, 9 September 1901, F.O. 58, Foreign Office Papers.

ascertain Tonga's annual imports and exports from his

books. What books Hunter did see annoyed him further, because of

their clear indication of favouritism in the application of the

wharf regulations and other corruption. A few exporters were

allowed to take their cargo to the wharf days before a ship's

arrival while the rest were forbidden to do so until the ship had 24

arrived. Probably because his mind was then on the Customs

Department, and after learning from von Treskow that he had never

been charged any duty for his goods, Hunter asked Tupou to be given

the same privilege. He also added that this was a privilege

normally accorded to diplomats throughout the world. To this Tupou

replied that he knew nothing about von Treskow being permitted to

receive his goods free of duty and that Tongan law demanded duty

from all except the King. Hunter's reply was that he, as the

British Consul, was not amenable to Tongan law, a statement that would

have infuriated the King even more. Thus it was that in September

1901, when Hunter related these incidents to the High Commissioner

in his first comprehensive report on Tonga since his arrival, he 25 added that the Government of Tonga was corrupt from top to bottom,

and devoid of 'any ideas of truth, honesty, or any other virtue, which

would tend to guide them to do common justice to those living in the

islands'.

24

25

Ibid.

W.H. Hunter to the Marquess of Landsdowne, Foreign Office, 9 September 1901, F.O. 58, Foreign Office Papers.

26

Hunter, in analysing the problems Europeans were having with

land in Tonga, made an observation that was significantly different

from those of his predecessors. In their efforts to protect and

satisfy the Europeans' land interest in Tonga, former British

representatives such as Beckwith-Leefe had based their requests and protest

to the Tongan authorities, as well as their representations to the

High Commissioners for help, on the allegation that the Tongan land

laws were not justly carried out by Government. Hunter, however,

went further than this to point out to the High Commissioner that there 27

was an 'absence of any definite system of land tenure' that was 28

in turn, responsible for the 'uncertain and precarious' state of

British and foreign interests in Tonga. For this same reason, he 29 added, the Tongan economy suffered because the 'working class'

would not plant any new coconuts for fear that they might not reap

any profits. In short, it was the land system itself that was at

fault. By going on to request the British Government to tackle this

as the fundamental obstacle to European security in Tonga, Hunter was

initiating moves for even greater British involvement in the internal

affairs of Tonga. Hunter also summed up what Beckwith-Leefe had only hinte

at by stating that,so long as Sateki remained the Premier, the

30