Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

RESPECT FOR THE COURTS.

101

ties. For offences against the local laws of police, public health, customs, and taxation, foreigners are amenable to the Tongan courts, the Consul being duly notified to be present if he will; and the subjects of all States having no treaty with Tonga may be tried by the Tongan courts without reference to any one. It was to provide for such cases that Mr Baker was about to import a European magistrate when he himself was deported.

If the native courts were to be respected they must be reformed, and they must not be afraid to deal impartially with foreigners. It happened that a Russian Finn, named Holt, had brutally assaulted a German in an outlying village, where the two men were rival bakers. The case could not be trusted to a native magistrate without reducing the courts to a farce; and as there was no one else available, I reluctantly had myself appointed Special Magistrate under an Act of Mr Baker that was still in force. Rather to my surprise, the defendant appeared to his summons; the prosecutor was represented by amateur counsel, and there was a curious audience of traders and natives. Bloodstained clothes were produced and identified, and the evidence showed the feeling between the two men to be very bitter. The only defence was that the prosecutor "had done it himself by running his head against a tree." Holt was fined £10 or a month's imprisonment, and, as I expected, he chose to serve his time. Perhaps he thought that the native Government would not dare to carry out the sentence, but in this he was disappointed. I at once had a disused lock-up cleaned out and roughly furnished, and installed a white policeman as jailer, with a contract to feed his prisoner accord

ing to scale at a fixed rate. The man was restive at first, and made dire threats of what he would do when he came out. He wrote to the Russian Consul in Sydney to claim an indemnity, and received answer that the consular jurisdiction did not extend to Tonga. But he served his full month, and gave no more trouble. This imprisonment of a white man had the very best effect upon those natives who were inclined to trade upon the weakness of the new Government.

I had only two other cases. A trader assaulted a native boy whose friends laid an information. I fined him 30s. or fourteen days' imprisonment in default. He raised no question of nationality until after the court rose, when he came to say that he was a naturalised American, and that I had therefore no jurisdiction over him. As he seemed a decent fellow enough, and likely to listen to reason, I pointed out that he was an Englishman by birth, and that he had no papers to prove his naturalisation: that unless he paid his fine I should certainly put him in jail: he would then, no doubt, appeal to his Consul in Samoa, who would call upon the Government for particulars: the copy of the evidence we should send would show that he had beaten a Tongan with very little provocation: the Consul would not, therefore, be likely to make a demand for indemnity in such a case, but if they did, the Government would of course pay it: by that time, however, he would have served his time in jail, which was a very uncomfortable sort of place, and full of mosquitos. Did he think that all this was worth the 30s.? Being a reasonable man he did not, and paid the money.

My third and last case very nearly led to a breach with

THE POLICE ARE JUSTLY SCANDALISED.

103

my valued colleague, the Minister of Police. A white man was summoned by the police for not keeping the road in front of his leased land free from weeds. As there had been bitter complaints by the Europeans that the native magistrates would only listen to the police in such cases, I determined to test the prosecution by hearing the charge myself. The police mustered in force, headed by the Inisipeketa. The clerks of the court sat below me with their shorthand note-books. The accused, a German, was charged with having left a clump of weeds in the road two yards from his fence: three policemen swore to the size and position of the clump. The defendant pleaded that the so-called road was an impassable swamp, and that he had weeded the road on which the traffic went. The police, however, said that they had nothing to do with the traffic, nor with the marsh. The road used to skirt the fence, and it was therefore the road within the meaning of the Act. The case was dismissed, and the myrmidons of the law exchanged glances. A few hours later Tukuaho received an official letter from Kubu saying that he could not discharge his duties if the magistrates gave such decisions; that the police were much pained with the "Expounder," and were threatening to resign. Tukuaho showed me the letter, begging me not to be angry, but to understand that the police were a little dark-minded. I sent for Kubu and his Inisipeketa, and asked them to tell me their grievance, and I would answer it. They said that it was a new thing in Tonga for any man whom the police accused to be let off; that if this were done the people would respect them no more, and crimes would greatly increase, to the shame and discomfiture of the Government.

Gently but firmly I explained to Kubu that if the police were always to obtain convictions, it was a waste of time to bring offenders before a magistrate; that the police, if they would be worthy of their hire, should only bring accusations that they were sure of sustaining; and then, when I had manured his mind for a new idea, I told him that to punish a man simply because the police accused him was "contrary to the Constitution." At the magic word "Konisitutone" the Minister and his satellite gave way, utterly crushed. That they should have unwittingly fallen under the charge they had so often launched against Mr Baker overwhelmed them. "Pardon us," said Kubu, with humility, "what do we know? We are dark-minded, Misa Tomisoni; you must bear with us and teach us." I pardoned him.

VIII.

CONVICTS AND POLICE.

THERE are times in life when one should be allowed four hands, two brains, and sustained insomnia. There was a great deal to do, and the sun, unmindful of the political importance of Tonga, would not stand still. I was threatened with lawsuits by merchants in New Zealand, who wanted me to recognise ruinous verbal contracts alleged to have been made with my predecessor; the British ViceConsul was remonstrating with me for demanding rent from a British subject who claimed the fee-simple of the land he occupied; the courts were playing football with the law; the police were trampling airily on the rights of private property; the convicts walked the town with all the liberty and twice the assurance of free men; and the Europeans had resuscitated the defunct Chamber of Commerce, and were for once united in a determination to embarrass the Government. The Treasury and Customs, it was true, were safe in the hands of my able second; but Baker's accounts were crying to be audited, and if I were to relax my vigilance among my native colleagues, they were sure to fall out with me and with each other.

« AnteriorContinuar »