970605

A collection of news-briefs from The Tonga Chronicle, Lao & Hia, Taimi 'o Tonga, Ko e Kele'a, Radio Tonga. For more details of these stories, feel invited to buy a paper from one of the locations mentioned in our Tonga Media pages.

Tonga High School's festivities began with a rocky start, but eventual goodwill between unaligned participants and the determination of parents to provide a festive occasion have ensured a smooth and happy conclusion to the 50^th Anniversary celebrations.

Clive Edwards, Minister of Police, in an unfortunate fit of anger declared publicly, just days prior to the festivities, that he was withdrawing from the festivities and with it his withdrawal of scheduled assistance which included vala, puaka toho and duties. The unfortunate public refusal by the minister was quickly picked up the radio and newspapers who promptly published excerpts from his resignation letter to the Acting Minister for Education (the Prime Minister.) This precipitated anger and discontent in the ranks of ex-students, most of whom were not aware of the intimate details leading to the Minister's resignation, and the misrepresentation of information they were receiving. A dark cloud seemed to be engulfing the 50^th anniversary.

Thankfully parents, teachers, students, ex-students and friends of the college rallied together to give the bygone 50 years a farewell and to welcome the 6^th decade with myriads of performances and fund giving. The current college and parents fed the festivals on Wednesday, Saturday, and will feed them again Tuesday. The ex-students played host to the starving masses Thursday, and Friday. Of interest to readers familiar with polas, parents gave their full support to overflowing and polas extended out of the shelters. Thursday's polas seemed to have been poorly allocated, as the ex-students required for the march parade, included many who had determined to provide polas, in short there was a major shortage of polas leaving guests in the uncomfortable position of hanging around waiting for an open table.

Major contributions of the festivities included the class of 1962 dedicating a new fence around the school property at an estimated cost of TOP$30,000. A new computer lab was dedicated, including 20 new computers for senior students and a pledge from the Brisbane ex-students to fund a full Internet connection for the school. Ground breaking by ex-students promised a new facility to contain a computer center and new library. The classrooms were repainted.

The ex-students held musical concerts, choir competitions, and their own fun, as well as continuing their fund raising. Ex-students also took the opportunity to try and obtain more current records of their compatriots.

Although the targeted TOP$1 million has not been reached, a great deal of money has been raised by the ex-students for their projects for the school.

The schools magazine committee worked real hard to put together a very good remembrance of the previous 50 years in the form of a photo display room and the 50^th anniversary magazine. The committee selected from a range of articles and photographs within each of the previous decades, from principals, staff, and students. This process has provided a worthy record, broad perspective of what the school was like in between the text books. If you are interested in academic history in the Kingdom of Tonga, this magazine and the Taufa'ahau Pilolevu 50^th Anniversary magazine are a good start on education in Tonga. The school's contact account is pheimuli@kalianet.to, you may wish to get in touch with them about getting a copy of their magazine (just tell them we sent you.)

Tonight they sleep well.

The Minister of Finance is having difficulties cajoling members of parliament to the virtues of a new budgeting system to be introduced Financial Year '97. The proposed new budget system will allocate and track funds per project as opposed to allocation of funds per Ministry. This is in part to allay criticisms from donor nations regarding disappearance of funds (lack of records?) when donor projects cross Ministerial boundaries. There seems to be some confusion in the press as to exactly how computers are related to the new move by the Minister.

Unfortunately, due to a mishap with the Budget Advisor, the new budget papers has continually been delayed in being tabled with Parliament for review. Treasury staff are burning the midnight oil making polas for the THS celebrations, and reviewing the proposed budget figures to ensure proposed transactions are allocated to the correct accounts.

Concerns about the seemingly rushed introduction of a totally new budgeting process has been met with reassurances from the Minister that overseas consultants have been thoroughly training government staff.

• 'Esau Namoa, who has been funding emergency care transfers from Tonga to Australia/New Zealand, has recently received funds injection from the Uniting Church in Australia to the tune of $1,000.
• A Tonga Dairy project had been approved with an injection of $70,000 to develop a dairy industry to cater for local consumption requirements. Although an idea that seems very useful, there does not seem to be any indicators that a careful study of consumer requirements and local production capacities has been made.
• TCF has increased its regular shipments of foodstuffs to Ha'apai and its success has prompted an assessment of including Ha'apai outer islands to the shipments. Islands in view include Lofanga, Nomuka, and Ha'afeva.
• David Solomon set a new TIGFA national record with a 43kg sail fish on an 8kg line. Chris Chapman, a first timer, broke another record with a 1.6kg barracuda on a 6kg line

• Lawyer, Bank of Tonga, negotiable.
• Administrative Officer, Tonga Water Board, T$11,653 pa
• Graduate Computer Programmer, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, T$6,348-$9,570 pa

[ref: http://www.tongatapu.net.to]
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