FRIENDLY ISLANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 225, 28 September 1870, Page 2

FRIENDLY ISLANDS.

The Tongese Parliament met in July. A Cemetery Bill, forbidding interment in towns, and a measure providing for the erection of two houses in each capital of the three principal islands, for the relief of destitute Europeans, were passed. Five hundred native soldiers, armed with the latest inventions in rifles, were reviewed by the King. The French man of-war Mcgere called at Nukualofa on July the 3rd, from Tahiti. She proceeds to New Caledonia and home via the Suez Canal. The French Admiral is at Tahiti, and is shortly to visit Tonga, and probably Fiji. The Coral, American whaler, is at Tonga, and baring a very successful season ; she lias already taken twenty whales. The natives are dying in numbers from feasting too heavily on the carcases, the report is that eighty have already died, but we cannot vouch for the truth of it as it is from natives. The Napoleon is also at Vavau. The barque San Francisco left for Samoa on the 10th July, and the Adolph (both owned by Messrs. Godefroy and Co., of Hamburgh), is to proceed to Europe shortly, with copra (dried coconut) and oil. Tke Tonguese Q-overnment have sold the island of Kambe (Fiji) to Captain John Hill.

The effects of the late hurricane are much felt.

Tobou College is fully established, and one hundred and twenty natives, many of .them sons of the leading chiefs, are being educated there ; the " curriculum" embraces a study of English mathematics, algebra, &c. The Prince of Wales brings three hundred sheep from Eva. The Tongese Governments will lease 'and for 50 and 99 years.

The tax on liquors landed on the group is as follows :—Spirits, two dollars a gallon ; wine, one dollar ; claret and ale, free ; license for tlie sale of same, three hundred dollars a year.