p. 17 | Word From Tonga by E. S. BUTZ

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Dec 29, 1904

Word From Tonga

By E. S. BUTZ

NUKUALOFA.—We have published two tracts which we are scattering broadcast here, and which have created quite an interest. One on the use of tobacco has opened up new thoughts to the natives, and the testimony everywhere among them is, “Mahuega aubito” (very precious indeed). Many said they were going to give up the use of tobacco, but they did not know what a hold it had upon them. We told them that they must seek the help of the Lord, or they would not succeed. Some gave it up for one day, others for a week or two, and then gave up the struggle; while a few have apparently overcome the habit.

The use of tobacco is begun in infancy by both sexes, and with kava drinking is a part of their social fabric. On entering a house, if they have no kava or do not care to go to the trouble of making it, the first word following the greeting is to apologize for not having any kava, and the next thing is for the girls or women to prepare cigarettes by rolling up the tobacco in a dry banana leaf. To neglect this is an insult. I will mention a case in point. A man took the tract home, and he and his mother decided to give up the filthy body-and-soul-destroying habit, and succeeded after a long hard struggle. But, alas! a few weeks later he was seen with a piece of tobacco behind his ear, where the natives regularly carry a piece, as a scribe does his pen. On being asked about it, he replied, “Mooni” (quite true); “but I had to prepare cigarettes for visitors at the kava party, and could not refuse smoking.” Three months ago I had the privilege of baptizing the first native man, who had struggled over a year to overcome the tobacco habit. A great change is to be seen in the man since he left off the use of tobacco, kava, and pork—trinity of filth.

The latter part of last year I visited some outlying islands of this kingdom, and distributed literature in all the villages. In one village I handed a quantity of tracts to a native minister, asking him to distribute them there. A week later he told Brother Tindall and me that half a dozen of the people there had come to him for more tracts, saying that they had formed a “union” to stop the use of tobacco. He answered them, “I brought this good thing to you, and you get the benefit of it, for it has led you to stop smoking; but I get no good from it, for I continue to smoke.” In talking with him, he did not seem to think that he needed to give it up.

I talked with an apparently nice old man, one of the oldest native ministers here; in fact, I took passage in his boat for ninety miles. He said, “True, it is bad to smoke,” and “the tract is very, very good,” but kept on smoking all the time. We stopped for the night at a little island. They wanted to prepare a pig and fowl for me, but I told them I wanted only a kumala (sweet potato), with which I satisfied my hunger.

As I had been seasick, I lay down on a mat in one corner of the native house, and tried to sleep; but the islanders came in with kava and tobacco to honor the old minister. Soon the air was thick and foul with tobacco fumes. The kava ring was formed by the natives, sitting in a circle, cross-legged, on the floor mat. The program consisted of a speech from the presiding orator, responded to by the speaker of our party, and then a bowl (the half shell of a large cocoanut) of kava each, and cigarette smoking, sometimes passing a cigarette around, each man taking a puff from the same one. This program was faithfully carried out until a late hour, while I lay in the corner, my head almost bursting from the poison in the air. (It was raining outside, so I had to stay there.)

The next morning our minister held a religious service with the flock who had regaled him the night before, and we came to Tonga over a high, stormy sea, glad to get home. I had planned on a four or five weeks’ trip, but was away ten before I could get a passage home.

This minister told me that he remembers when the ministers did not use tobacco. He was at the meeting when a vote was taken as to whether or not they would use it, and he voted against its use. But the flesh prevailed over the spirit, and all use it now.

Not long ago I was told by our native brother that the leading white missionary asked his wife where her husband attended church. On being told that he worshiped with us, he replied, “Aho Titu” (“Seventh Day,” as we are called) is “lotu tabutabu” (a holy religion), but he thought that the natives never could live up to it, as it is too holy for them.

Since returning home, I have been very busy building a small schoolhouse, painting and repairing the house, and staining and varnishing the chapel seats and pulpit. We hope to have a teacher from Sydney before many months. We had no money to hire the work done, so the children—Alma, our little daughter, and three half-caste children we have living with us—and Mrs. Butz helped me build the schoolhouse, all but putting up the rafters. Mrs. Butz also helped to paint the mission house outside and in; in fact, she did most of the painting while hearing the children’s lessons.

Prejudice is gradually wearing away, as is illustrated by the following fact: When we came to Tonga, the Wesleyan minister would not recognize us in any way, but wrote a bitter article against us in the native paper. The last two weeks Mrs. Butz nursed the wife of one of the Wesleyan European missionaries through a serious illness in the mission house, at their earnest solicitation. At the close they thanked her most heartily, and said they did not know how they could have gotten on without her.

Many of the natives recognize that we have “the truth,” are the “true church,” etc., but they are bound by custom, habits, and the church. Their social life makes it almost impossible for them to take their stand—impossible, but for the grace of God. They lack a sense of right, and have not the courage of what little conviction they have. I think one of the worst effects of tobacco and kava is to deaden moral sense, and cause them to be satisfied with themselves. The enervating climate also tends to make people indifferent. Pray that God will give us wisdom, and that his Holy Spirit will arouse the people from this state of lethargy. They are all members of the churches, and seem to think that is all that is necessary. In a most literal sense they “take no thought for the morrow.”

E. S. BUTZ.