PATRIOTIC TONGA.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 March 1916, Page 6

PATRIOTIC TONGA.

RECRUITS FOR AUCKLAND. . THE STEAMER SERVICE. i Five weeks without news or outside communication! City dwellers can hardly realise what this means, wrote the New Zealand Herald correspondent at .Nukualofa, Tonga, by last mail. Vo newspapers, no cables, no street hoardings telling of the latest happenings in Europe-nothing. We are getting used to our steamer service—a mail once in n'e weeks, and then again three weeks Inter. Between times we are left to our own resources, which used to consist of sitting on somebody's verandah drinking bug drinks and talking of our neighbor's faults and how many cigarettes he smoked in a month. But since the advent of our iPatriotic j.ea«ue tilings have changed. We are unanimous in the cause, and every Britisher welcomes the opportunity offered to assist' and further the. loyalty of the outposts. It is a far cry from here to Auckland, which is the nearest reeruitln" base of service to the .South Seas. There are a handful of young Britishers resident in Nukualofa who are keen as the proverbial mustard to get with their fellows in the firing-line. But fares to New Zealand muist be paid, and there are a dozen and one things that call for the, expenditure of cash before our intending recruits can make their initial start for the war. So it is towards this end that Nukualofa has run riot in the rnattei of carnivals organised by the league. Open-air shows, garden parties and entertainments have been in full swing. Any scheme that offered the slightest suggestion of a cash return was seized upon and promptly put into effect, even to the selling by auction of a box plan of a farewell vaudeville show, winch was ultimately secured at a substantial figure by the Premier of Tonga. From the funds thus raised intending recruits' passages, with the addition of a little pocket money, are paid to Auckland, where we expect the defence officials to do the rest. In other words, the public, by patronising the various entertainments, are practically subscribing to a presentation to every recruit from Tongn. In doing this, all classes of the community are making sacrifices. Times in the kingdom are very bad. The effects of hurricanes are now' being'felt in full, and for some months ahead there will be no copra for export. Last year's output of the product was verv small, and the ca=h derived from the sale has long ago heeli-exhausted bv the people. There will he nothing until the,;end of IMB, when the new crop comes in. Under the circumstances, the money donations in helping the cause are the more, worthy. By the steamer leaving here in April it is expected that nine men will besent to the Auckland recruiting office. This is the second batch within three months, and represents the bulk of eligibles resident in Tonga. For business reasons a few young men are unable to join in on this occasion, but they will leave by tbe following steamer.