The Story of Queen Salote

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 751, 4 December 1953, Page 19

The Story of Queen Salote

RING | her round*the-world tour, Elizabeth, Queen of the world’s largest realm, wil] be .entertained for two days by Salote, Queen of one of the smallest. The six-feet three-inch Polynesian monarch will welcome Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh at Nukualofa, the capital of Tonga, an independent island kingdom little more than a third the size of Stewart Island. With the Royal visit, the attention of the world will again focus on the woman who made headlines when she rode through the rain in an open carriage at the Coronation of Elizabeth II. Between now and then, listeners to-ZB Women’s Sessions will be able to learn something of the life of this remarkable ruler. A series of three talks, entitled SalotePacific Queen, is to be broadcast during December. The scripts have been seen and approved by Salote herself, who regards them as a pleasant change from some of the tiresome inaccuracies published about her at Coronation time. The talks, written by the New Zealand author and historian Jim Henderson, deal with the life of Salote from her childhood in Tonga to the progressive rule she has brought to Tonga at the present day. There are anecdotes about the Queen’s schooldays: at Auckland, the story of her coronation in 1918 (Salote is the world’s only, Methodist monarch), and innumerable examples of the personal charm and integrity which have.made her the revered ruler of Tonga: and the most popular of London's Coronation visitors. Throughout the talks runs the thread of Tonga’s history and its long association with the British Commonwealth. (The Kingdom is actually independent, but traditionally enjoys the protection of Great Britain.) The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will probably see one of the most tangible examples ofthis association

while staying at the Palace at, Nukualofa. One’ of tine’ palace pets is Tui Malila, a. battered but still living tortoise left as a gift by Captain Cook in 1777. Jim Henderson, a staff member of the War Histories Department, ‘is the author of Gunner Inglorious, and R.M.T.., a history of New Zealand truck-drivers in the Western Desert and Italy, which will be published shortly. His talks begin in the Women’s Hour from 2ZB and 3ZB on Tuesday, December 1, and from. 1ZB’ and 4ZB on December 8.