ALLAGED RELIGIOUS PERSEOUTION IN TONGA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1445, 15 January 1887, Page 3

ALLAGED RELIGIOUS PERSEOUTION IN TONGA.

4 The following paßsa»?s are q"o'ei fr m a leading article undo- lha abov.^ hen^'ns which appears m the B>\ dn&y Daily T4kgrajih of the £9. h ut: — ''An extraordinary s'ory of re'Jgi'.uj persecution is told iv our corceip 'iniorci colunin tV>» tn:rning. Th--. .Rev I- 1 . SuiloiM, Pn si ent of tho Now S nth Wules on I QiiflsniUnd Conferonco of tin Australasian Wiß'ojan Methodist Church, the Conference which has jurisdiction r.ver Wesloyau misi na m tna oouth renß. Co. da us a long extract fr.im a letter j iat reciivwd from lhv> Rev J. E. Moul on, "f i\ n^'*, with hh own explanatory aurl i idigoauiLomnctenta. Mr M lalton say* tha one of the native clergy, as much a clergyman hb, say Mr Sailors m Sydney, a man whose 'character is abeolutely slain Us?,' has boon fined several hundred dollars and sentenced to twelve yeira penal s rvitade, ' which, as he is ovor fifty years of age, moans the term of hianatural life.' One of the charges against the old man was that he had slandered the King. "He had said that he irai atod S<*ul, who obeyed his king m earthly maUers, bat not m matters spiritual. This was construed into hiving compared King George to Nero,' Another charge was that this old man had dared to say that the King 'hid erred.' For eaoh of these oxtraordinrry oritn's he was sentenoed to five years ' hard labor, and the terms are not concurrent. The other details given m onr correspondent's letter all go to sus'alu the allegation of systematic persecution. There is no disputing the fact of the persecution ; the difficulty is to find out n vay of stopping it. The situation was lucidly explained to Sir Crarles Mitchell, the new Sovonor of Fiji, on Frldiy last, but previous appeals to other Imperial officers had no effeob. It would appear that bo long as Mr Shit ley Baker does not touch British Bu K jecta he cannot be Interfered with. What he dots to Tongans is done under the pretenoe of Tongan law. He can be r«""ned with, bal that is now ahope's . . .uj.ly for the state of affiira."