TONGA (Hansard, 4 May 1966)

§ Dame Joan Vickers (Plymouth, Devonport)

I am glad to have this opportunity to talk about another part of the world, Tonga, because late last year I visited these beautiful islands and this gives me the opportunity to say a "thank you" for the generous hospitality and warm welcome I received. I was grateful to be able to stay with a Tongan family, who made me feel really welcome.

One realises that the people of Tonga are proud and independent. At the moment they are mourning their queen, Queen Salote, and everyone will remember the impression she made at the Coronation, when she put these islands on the map. I hope tonight to ask Her Majesty's Government if they will pay a tribute to Queen Salote in a practical way, by some form of aid. The Under-Secretary of State will realise that in 1961 there was a very bad hurricane from which the islands never fully recovered.

The main assets of the islands are their agricultural lands. It is an agricultural country. Since I was there, I believe an adviser has been sent out to help them with their agriculture. I should like to see the stock breeds improved. I hope that we may be able to persuade New Zealand to send some bulls, some better boars and perhaps some better cocks in order to improve the stock, which appears to need the aid. There seem to be few sheep and no goats, both of which animals would be an asset to the country. In the past some stock has come from New Zealand, and perhaps further aid from this source could be provided to Tonga in future.

I understand that the soil is fertile and rich, although traditional methods of agriculture are still employed. A study of more modern methods is necessary if intensive cultivation is to take place. My hon. Friend the Member for Torrington (Mr. Peter Mills) is, unfortunately, not in his place. He is interested in farming and, while he and I were in Tonga, we were shown some of the best farms and what could be done with more intensive cultivation. I was struck 1825 by the lack of machinery, and I hope that this lack will be rectified, perhaps by the grant of aid for this purpose in future. Many of the farms are extremely small. It would be beneficial if more co-operative farming were done, because at present the acreages are split into farms which are far too small.

I was greatly interested to find a United Nations team helping to overcome the shortage of water supplies. The supply of water is a particularly difficult problem, and this team was providing special wells, with either automatic or windmill pumps, and these will be a great asset to the people generally and to agriculture in particular.

I hope that the Under-Secretary will comment on the social services in that country, particularly the hospital. I understand that there is a chance of obtaining a grant from the Commonwealth Development and Welfare Fund. Although the hospital is doing an excellent job, it is primitive in many respects. The Under-Secretary will understand what I mean when I say that men and women are side by side in the wards and families of patients bring in food each day. The families often sleep beneath or beside the beds. This cannot be the best way to run a hospital.

I was most impressed with the work of the excellent Tongan doctor, the Australian matron and the nurses. If Tonga is to improve the health of its people, it must have better hospital accommodation and better conditions. The mortality rate, particularly the infant mortality rate, has decreased considerably since 1953, the earliest figures I was able to obtain, but there is room for improvement.

If the Under-Secretary is able to announce that there will be a donation or some other form of financial assistance for the hospital, the medical authorities will want to run it on more modern lines. I discussed the matter with the matron and the Minister of Finance. They told me that they had decided that they needed at least 20 more nurses. I understand that to train one nurse for one year costs £135. So to train 20 nurses for three years would cost about £7,100. This cannot be considered to be a great sum for training 20 girls for three years. Having been trained, the nurses will receive a salary 1826 of £84 to begin with, rising to a maximum of £276. Perhaps some money could be placed towards the Queen Salote Training School for Nurses. There is already a small training school available there, and this extra money would be of great help. If the standard of living of the people of Tonga is to improve, it is vital that conditions at the hospital are improved.

I was particularly worried by the fact that mental patients must be nursed and looked after in the prison. I hope that the Under-Secretary will look into this matter and, if a new hospital is to be built, a special ward or other provision will be made for the care of mental patients.

Education of the people of Tonga began in 1828 by the Wesleyan Mission and later, in 1842, by the Roman Catholics. Tonga has had compulsory education since 1929. From the age of six to 14, all Tongan children should go to school, but unfortunately the provisions in this respect are not followed accurately. There is control of these schools by the Government and church organisations, and I am pleased to report that the schools have the same syllabuses; that is, with the exception of the College of the Latter Day Saints, which follows its own syllabus, rather on the American lines. I visited a number of the schools, which are very short of equipment. I saw the books, which very often had to be written and illustrated by the teachers before the lessons could be begun. They have lessons in the Tongan and English languages, and in the usual subjects, but the shortage of books and of all kinds of equipment makes teaching extremely difficult. I thought the teachers were doing an excellent job, despite these difficulties.

I would like the Under-Secretary to help in obtaining further books. I have here a list of books, which was given to me by the very enthusiastic principal of the small teachers training college, and I should like to hand it to the Under-Secretary afterwards. I visited the teachers training college and I found that there were quite a number of books, but I felt that they were a waste of shipping space. They were mostly old. Many of them were second-hand and were old copies which were no longer needed in other schools.

1827 Having seen the enthusiastic Englishman who is running the college, I thought it would be worth supporting him in trying to make his work easier. As he pointed out in his letter to me, and from what I saw for myself, there are no wall maps. As far as I could see, there are no maps at all on any of the walls of the convent school. I do not believe they have even got a map of Tonga, and it would be a great advantage if they could have such a map.

In the training college, there is no tape recorder, no radio and no record player. In fact, he said they would like office equipment, such as a filing cabinet and a stapling machine for papers, art materials, a microscope and an atlas. He suggested they would particularly like books on science and geography. When he mentioned science, he meant the formal basic knowledge. They want to know something about the weather and how plants grow. They cannot carry out weather observations because they have no rain or wind gauges or thermometers. He felt it would be a great asset if they could have some of this equipment. Of course the real need is for a printing press—this is perhaps rather overambitious—on which they could print their own books relating to their own country. They have books dealing with England and New Zealand, of which some of them have knowledge because the older students go to that country for their senior training, usually in Auckland, where there is a hostel. But their books do not relate to their own type of life and they cannot really absorb all that they should. With this compulsory education and the necessity to keep the students in school for such a long period, it is not easy to keep them adequately occupied if there are not the where-withal or the books.

The question which worries me is what some of them are going to do when they leave school, with the sort of half-knowledge that they obtain. Some of those who are able to go on to the grammar school get a chance to go to New Zealand, but others are not fully educated. Therefore, some of them, particularly the girls, find it difficult to get any kind of work.

1828 I should also like to see another factory built there. I went to see a dessicated coconut factory. It was small but excellent. The coconuts were excellent. The product is shipped to New Zealand and Japan and, I believe, a little comes here to this country. If another factory could be built on these lines it would be a tremendous help.

I should also like to pay a tribute to the work done by the Legislative Assembly, the Privy Councillors and the Cabinet. They are a very hard-working body and they try to ensure that all the people of these extremely friendly islands, well known to Captain Cook, are looked after. But, of course, they have their difficulties on a very short budget.

The new King has been very energetic. He now has a new hotel—it was not open when I was there—and he hopes to attract tourists. This will be beneficial to the islands. If the tourists are willing just to meet the friendly people and not to want too sophisticated pleasures, it should be a very happy stay for them.

I pay a tribute to the Tongan Women's Progress Association. Although they are very cut off in these little islands, these women arranged, with great courage, I think, a meeting of the Pan-Pacific Women's Organisation, which I understand was a great success. They were kind enough to entertain us and demonstrated how much they work for the benefit of other people on the islands. Many of them are members of social groups like the Red Cross, which help a good deal. The Red Cross is sent a lot of clothes, some of which have been found extremely useful. However, I must mention that the hospital had no bandages when I was there. I was able to have some sent in from both Fiji and New Zealand, and I gather that the matter was to be looked into. Women were actually tearing up sheets to make bandages at the time I was there, and making an excellent job of it, but it was not a satisfactory state of affairs.

I pay a tribute also to the interest taken by the officials of the Colonial Office. I had the pleasure of meeting one while I was there, and I spoke to him about conditions when I came back. 1829 I realise that, as these people are completely independent, we can act only as their advisers. They are perfectly capable of running their own islands in a quite splendid manner, but they are so isolated and they have very few facilities for earning money among themselves. If we could aid them, perhaps as a memorial to their late Queen, it would be a great asset.

The British High Commissioner is doing a very good job indeed. He is a very sympathetic and understanding man, and any advice and help he can give is always willingly given. I am sure that it is thoroughly sound advice. He is much admired and liked. I discussed several matters with him and talked over several points which, if I had the opportunity which I now have, I would make in a speech in the House. I hope that the Under-Secretary of State will be able to give an assurance that these islands will get a friendly look from the Treasury.

§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr. John Stonehouse)

I am grateful to the hon. Lady the Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Dame Joan Vickers) for having initiated this debate because it gives me an opportunity, which is all too rarely available, to tell the House something of our relations with the Kingdom of Tonga and the various fields in which they are developing. I am only sorry to say that I cannot do this on the basis of first-hand experience of the kind the hon. Lady has because I have not yet had an opportunity to visit the islands, which, I am told, are very attractive indeed.

Hon. Members will know that Tonga and Britain have long been associated through a series of treaties of friendship. The first was concluded as early as 1879. Under the terms of the present treaty, which was signed in 1958, the Government of Tonga conduct virtually all internal affairs. We would not, of course, seek to interfere in this sphere in any way. We are responsible for most of Tonga's external relations and her defence, although in the second we share the duty with New Zealand.

The cordial relation which has always existed between Britain and Tonga was 1830 greatly strengthened during the illustrious reign of Her late Majesty Queen Salote, who was held in such high esteem and affection in this country. Hon. Members will recall, as the hon. Lady did in her speech, the very great impression of warmth and friendship made by Her Majesty during the coronation ceremonies of our own Queen. Queen Salote's death in December last year was an occasion of great sadness to very many people in all walks of life here. Queen Salote was succeeded by her son, His Majesty King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV. King Taufa'ahau Tupou has visted this country a number of times and I am confident that under his guidance Tonga will enter into a period of further development and increased prosperity.

Like many of the other island States in the Pacific—an ocean which has not been at all pacific—Tonga has recently had to face a number of problems as well as natural disasters which so often befall these islands. As the hon. Lady said, in March, 1961, a hurricane decimated the coconut palms which provide Tonga with her main source of revenue. Other natural resources are limited or require extensive development, and with a rapidly expanding population and a growing shortage of land, it became clear to the Tonga authorities in 1963 that steps would have to be taken to overcome the setbacks to the economy. I am very glad to say that Tonga has turned to this country for help and that we have been able to offer assistance which we believe will contribute to the re-establishment of prosperity.

It may be of interest to the House if I give a few details of what Tonga hopes to achieve. We have been able to make an allocation of £350,000 from Colonial Development and Welfare Funds for the period 1965 to 1968 as a contribution to the financing of Tonga's development programme. This programme, final details of which have not yet been fully worked out by the Tonga Ministers, is on a considerable scale and includes schemes for the rehabilitation of the coconut industry and for the rebuilding of Vaiola Hospital in Nuku'alofa which, as the hon. Lady said, is very old and is in urgent need of replacing. Most of the cost of these two projects will, in fact, be met from Colonial Development and Welfare grant funds available.

1831 Also in the plan is a scheme for a new Training College building to accommodate more student teachers for Tonga's primary schools. I am sure that hon. Members agree that that is extremely important. I will look into the question of further training, particularly for hospitals, which has been raised. This requirement in the schools will be financed from Tonga's own funds. Other schemes are likely to be the development of the airfield and new roads. The airfield will be very important. We hope that it will be possible to make available a further allocation of Colonial Development and Welfare money for the period 1968–70. In addition to these grants, the British Government are making available a loan to meet half the cost of construction of a new wharf at Nuku'alofa, which is badly needed and which should greatly help to expand Tonga's economy.

Hon. Members will appreciate that the great majority of these development projects fall entirely within the responsibility of the Tonga Government under the terms of the Treaty of Friendship. The only reason that I have presumed to go into some detail on them tonight is that we in this country have been able to offer some assistance to the Government of Tonga in financing some of them in the hope that, as a result, developments which are necessary and which are desired by the Government and people of Tonga can be got under way more quickly. What is in hand indeed is a co-operative development effort on an appreciable scale to meet as many as possible of the economic and social needs of Tonga, and we are proud to have a share in it. That we should do so seems to me entirely in accord with the spirit of close friendship which, despite the great distance between us, has always animated relations between our two countries.

The same spirit animates us in another closely related field in which it has recently been possible for some assistance to be given. Our Technical Assistance Programme has allowed the British Government to provide Tonga with a financial adviser. He has been in post since December last and is advising the Tongan Minister concerned on various questions, including drawing up the Development Plan. There is a British police 1832 adviser in post, and it is also hoped to provide within the next few months an adviser on civil aviation and to assist in strengthening Tonga's Agricultural Department with particular reference to coconut rehabilitation.

This is extremely important for the development of the Tonga economy. Under the technical assistance programme, a visit to Tonga was also arranged of a member of the B.B.C. Overseas Training Organisation. The recommendation contained in his report is now under examination.

Also, that we have been glad to have a number of Tongans here in Britain as students. For obvious reasons most students go to New Zealand, but in recent years some eleven Tongans have been granted training awards in this country. I very much hope that the number coming here will continue to grow. We are delighted that King Taufa'ahau's eldest son, the Crown Prince Taufa, is here at school. We wish him well in his work here and hope that he has a most enjoyable stay. Incidentally, yesterday was his birthday. It is a pity that the last debate took so long because otherwise we would have been able to wish him many happy returns of the day. We are about an hour and a half late for that. I hope that when he completes his studies he will carry home to Tonga memories of Britain as a pleasant place; we hope as pleasant as the memory that visitors from Britain have of Tonga.

The story would not be complete if I did not stress the great appreciation which has been expressed by the Government of Tonga on a number of occasions for what we are doing. A number of officials from my Department have been there in the last year or so and the warmth and friendliness of the reception accorded to them in those, the Friendly Islands, is a matter on which they have all remarked. I am sure that the hon. Lady, who spoke so charmingly, must have had the same experience when she went to Tonga last November. I am very grateful to her for the various tributes she paid in her speech tonight.