THE DEATH OF QUEEN POMARE.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1056, 15 November 1877, Page 3

THE DEATH OF QUEEN POMARE.

As reported by recent telegram, the schooner Wild Wave, which has arrived at Auckland from Borotonga and Tahiti, brought intelligence of the death of Pomare IV., Queen of the Society Islands and dependencies. The melancholy event occurred on the day (19th September) on which the vessel left Papete, capital of Tahiti, and, consequently, very little more than the mere fact is known. The Queen, it seems, was in the enjoyment of her usual good health on the morning of the 19th September, and at 7.30 a.m. took her matutinal bath. She was seized with a fit almost immediately afterwards, and expired shortly before 9 o’clock. Such (writes the Auckland “ Herald ”) are the brief particulars of the demise of this singular woman, in whose life and doings the English people were at one time profoundly interested, and on whose behalf a rupture between England and France was once considered not improbable. Her reign has been a very eventful one, and there are but few people of ordinary intelligence who have not heard of her, so that a short resume of the leading events which have characterised her rule may not prove out of place here. “Pomare” is the regal title in Tahiti, and the deceased Queen was the fourth who had borne it—her maiden name having been “ Aimata,” i.e., eye-eater or eye-swallower, in allusion to an ancient rite. Pomare IV. aTu (to give her the full title) was born on the 28th February, 1813, and consequently was rather more than sixtyfour years of age at the time of her death. She was married in 1834 at the age of twenty - one to Ariifaaite a Hiro, to whom she bore three sons and a daughter, but only two of her children are now living, viz., Teratane Ariiaue, heir-presumptive to the crown, and Tamatoa V,, ex-King of the Island of Baiatea. Tahiti was one of the first fields to which the London Missionary Society sent out its devoted agents, and after nineteen years of privation and hardship the labours of the missionaries were crowned with success, and the island became evangelised ; the Group also. Pomare IV. was educated in the tenets of the Protestant faith, and on the death of her half-brother in January, 1827, ascended the throne —a youthful Queen of fourteen summers. Nothing of special import happened till the latter part of 1842, when a dispute between the Protestant missionaries and two Popish priests gave the French the opportunity to interfere. The £ nests came with the intention to start a 'rench mission, but they were incontinently sent back whence they came. This unwarrantable interference with the liberty of Frenchmen was brought under the notice of the French Q-overnment, and the result was the despatch to Tahiti of the frigate La Venus, under Admiral Du Petit Thouars. A French protectorate was placed over the Group—in other words, the Society Islands became from that time a French colony. This was considered as an invasion upon the domain of Protestantism, and strenuous efforts were made to induce England, as the champion of the reformed faith, to espouse the cause of the Queen. Succour, however, was not forthcoming, and the feeble resistance made by the islanders having been quelled, the protectorate was established and Pomare compelled to formally signify her approval of it. Previous to 1842, an annual conference or parliament of the natives was held for the transaction of matters temporal and spiritual, and at one of these the Queen having caused a Bible to be brought in, told the assembled representatives that, before coming to a decision on any question, they should first ask, “ Is it in accordance with that book ?” If it was so, then they might adopt the decision ; but if it was not, then they should discard it. Of course, it may be well understood that, being reared under the tutorship of Protestant clergymen, Pomare has not shown any great liking to Boman Catholicism, and the fact that not more than 100 converts have been made to that faith, shows what a firm foothold Protestantism has in the Group. For the last 30 years the Government has been carried on by French officials with Pomare ostensibly as supreme head. She was a woman of earnest spirit, much piety, and possessed of great determination. Her husband died on the 6th August, 1873, and since then she has remained a widow. In the following year she conceived the idea of having what is known as a religious revival or awakening amongst her people. Accordingly, accompanied by a number of native clergymen, she visited in turn the different villages, and held services at each. The pastors conducted the devotional exercises, while the Queen delivered the address, in which she encouraged her subjects to remain firm to their faith as Protestants, urged them to carry out the precepts of the Bible in their daily life, and entreated them to pay more attention to matters affecting their spiritual welfare. By Pomare’s death the English missionaries have lost an invaluable coadjutor, and the Protestant cause a firm friend. Her eldest surviving son, Teratane Ariiaue, is, as stated before, heir to the throne.