Looking toward Nuku'alofa harbour from Sia Ko Veiongo, SS Richmond in view; Nuku'alofa, July 1887
Photographer: George Valentine
Union Steamship Company Collection
PAColl-5426-40
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
The maiden voyage of the SS Richmond left Auckland on 8 July 1887. Travelling through Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti and Rarotonga, it was advertised as the perfect way to avoid New Zealand's cold winter months. On board were 20 passengers and ₤4000 worth of livestock and trade goods. Among the passengers was George Valentine, a well known photographer who took this photo during the first port of call at Nuku'alofa in the 'Friendly Islands' of Tonga.
Young Prince Tāufa'āhau, c.1890
Photographer unknown
S.P. Smith Album
PA1-f-071
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
Siaosi (George) Tāufa'āhau, born in 1874, was the son of Fusipala and Fatafehi Tu'ipelehake. As a young man Tāufa'āhau was sent to New Zealand for schooling. This photograph was taken before he acceded to the throne in 1893 as King George Tupou II.
Images of three Tongans, c.1880
PA1-f-237
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
These photos were among those taken in Tonga in July 1874 during a scientific expedition aboard the British Government's HMS Challenger. They were found in an ornately designed album compiled in the 1880s entitled 'Photographs and scenes and natives in the Pacific Islands and Straits of Magellan'. The album was purchased by the National Library of New Zealand in 2001. Images of Tonga included in the album show portraits of 'His Majesty King George Tupou I' and 'Her Majesty Queen Charlotte (Lupepau'u)'.
'THE HOUSE', 1884
Photographer: Burton Brothers
Parliamentary Library Collection, New Zealand
PA1-f-178-48-1
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
A group of New Zealand parliamentarians visited several of the Pacific Islands on the Union Steamship Company's SS Wairarapa in July 1884. They are pictured here with Alfred Burton (standing upper left in front of mast), who photographed much of the voyage. The two images that follow: 'Ten women of Nuku'alofa' and 'Royal Palace and Chapel' are among the several taken by Burton on that journey.
Ten women of Nuku'alofa, 1884
Photographer: Burton Brothers
PA Coll-4300-1
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
Royal Palace and Chapel, 1884
Photographer: Burton Brothers
S.P. Smith Album
PA1-f-071-04-2
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
Fafā picnic, 1893
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
A picnic was arranged on Fafā Island, Nuku'alofa, by the German trading company Vines, Utting and Perston. Several members of the C.D. Whitcombe family are pictured here with others who attended the picnic.
Charles Douglas Whitcombe had served as a journalist for the New Zealand Herald when members of the New Zealand Chamber of Commerce visited Tonga and other Pacific Islands in 1885 looking at the prospect of trade with the islands.
Whitcombe is said to have been tutor to Prince Tāufa'āhau while the young prince was residing in New Zealand in the late 1880s. Whitcombe returned to live in Tonga with his family in the 1890s. His wife and five of their children are included in this photo.
Top row standing, left to right: Shirley Watkin; Emilie Riechelmann [Chatfield]; Ella Watkin [Masterton]; Mr Campbell, the postmaster at Nuku'alofa; Fred Watkin; Ettie Leefe [Plesener]; Simon Plesener; Mary Archer Whitcombe [wife of Charles Douglas Whitcombe]; Miss Greenfield; Rev. Egan Moulton Jr; a German trader [name unknown]; Frank Seymour Whitcombe; captain of Norwegian barque Pronto [name unknown].
Middle row standing, left to right: Jack Douglas Whitcombe; Minna Riechelmann [Yarnton]; Harry E. Whitcombe.
Front row sitting, left to right: Charles A. Whitcombe; Dorothy M. Whitcombe [Snow]; Frank Parker; names unknown for four following men.
Palace party, Royal Palace, Nuku'alofa, 1899
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
This photograph appeared in New Zealand's Auckland Weekly News in 1899; it was taken on the occasion of King George Tupou II's marriage to Lavinia Veiongo in 1899. Some of the people have been identified: J. Egan Moulton Jr, with black beard and moustache, is sitting in the foreground in a black suit and vest, hat and watch chain visible; Fatafehi Tu'ipelehake, father of the king, with a white moustache and sideburns and wearing a black suit and white vest, stands on the right, second row from the top; Tupou II himself is in the photograph standing almost out of view at the doorway of the palace.
South Sea Islands trip, Nuku'alofa, 1899
Photographer unknown
Wendy Falloon Collection
F-168664 ½
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
This group photograph is typical of the depictions of tourists travelling through the Pacific Islands on the monthly steamer tours that gained popularity in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Members of the Sommerville family are pictured here with friends and Tongan hosts in Nuku'alofa; they had lived for some time in Samoa and were returning to live in New Zealand. A few are named: seated on left, Mrs Donnelly; seated in middle, Dr Milne Thomson; standing left to right: Gladys Sommerville, Mrs Milne Thomson, Mr Davies, Mr Ball and Mrs Duncan.
Premier and Mrs Seddon with Queen Lavinia Veiongo, first wife of Tupou II and mother of Princess Sālote Tupou, 1900
Photographer: Frederick Sears
Delahenty Album
½-030980-F
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
The Kingdom of Tonga was not on the formal itinerary when Premier Richard Seddon visited some of the Pacific Islands in late May 1900. Support for the annexation of the Cook Islands and Niue was an objective of his visit, but this diplomatic journey also served as an excuse to take a break from his hectic political life at a time when he was suffering from ill health.
Accompanied by some of his family and friends, Seddon set out from New Zealand in late May 1900 aboard the SS Tutanekai.
The voyage included Fiji (the seat of Britain's Western Pacific High Commission), Savage Island (Niue) and the Cook Islands. Not far off the coast of New Zealand, heading for the Cook Islands, the party met extremely rough weather – nearly everyone on board was seasick – and it was suggested that the passage could be eased by heading in a downward direction toward Tonga.
This and the following two photos were taken during the party's sojourn in Tonga.
A group of Tongan men and women, Nuku'alofa, 1900
Photographer: attributed to Frederick Sears
PA1-f-071-21-1
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
It is presumed that this photo was taken during Richard Seddon's visit to Tonga in 1900.
Tongan women dressed for the Britannic Queen's birthday celebration in Tonga, Nuku'alofa, 1900
Photographer: attributed to Frederick Sears
½-082381-F
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
It is presumed that this photograph was taken during Richard Seddon's visit to Tonga in 1900.
The exhibition curator and Saiatua Lavulo came across this photograph while poring through others at the Alexander Turnbull Library in 1996. Saiatua, who had never seen the photo, looked closely at the photograph and then exclaimed: 'I never saw this photo before, but you see that girl, the one with the black umbrella? I can't believe it – that's my mother!'
Left to right, as identified by Saiatua: unknown, Seini Cocker, Kelela Cocker, Lu'isa Riechelmann and Lotti Riechelmann.
New Zealand Parliamentary visit to the Islands, 1903
Photographer: Henry Winkelmann
F127268 ½
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
Parliamentary representatives passed through Tonga in 1903, while they were visiting the recently annexed island groups of Niue and the Cook Islands. They are pictured here in front of the palace with the King of Tonga, Tupou II, in Nuku'alofa.
SS Mapourika in harbour at Neiafu, Vava'u, 1903
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
C.H. Mills headed the group of 33 New Zealand parliamentarians who visited the islands that had been recently annexed to the colony, and along the way they visited Tonga. The intention was to 'gain by personal observation information respecting their trade, their producing capabilities and productiveness, and ... best methods of fostering and encouraging their development.'
SS Tofua I, Vuna Wharf, Nuku'alofa, c.1908
Photographer unknown
Collection of Vete family
The Union Steamship Company of New Zealand supported trade and tourism by establishing regular runs to the Islands in the 1880s. By the early 1900s the company put on three new ships for the island route: SS Navua, SS Tofua I and SS Atua. Of these the SS Tofua I remains in the memory of most Tongans the major link to New Zealand in the first part of the 20th century. It was inaugurated for the Pacific Island run in 1908.
Princess Sālote Tupou, Auckland, c.1911
Photographer: Schmidt Studio
PAColl-0359
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
Sālote Mafile'o Pilolevu Tupou, born 13 March 1900, was the daughter of King George Tupou II and Queen Lavinia. Her mother died in April 1902, just after Sālote's second birthday. At the end of 1909, Sālote was taken to New Zealand and remained there until the outbreak of World War I. She lived with the Kronfeld family in Auckland and then attended Diocesan School for Girls. She married Tungī Mailefihi in 1917 and became queen on the death of her father in 1918.
Ha'amonga-'a-Maui, ancient trilithon,
Heketā, northeastern Tongatapu, 1911
Photographer: Henry Winkelmann
Collection of Whitcombe family
Henry Winkelmann was one of two official photographers who accompanied a group of New Zealand parliamentarians when they visited Tonga in 1903. In 1911 he returned to Tonga to witness and hopefully photograph a rare eclipse of the sun which was to be most clearly visible from the island of Vava'u. This photograph was taken during that visit.
Jack Whitcombe goes to Tonga again, c.1909
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
Jack Whitcombe was born in New Plymouth in 1884. He lived in Tonga with his family for several years in the 1890s. The experience left him with fond memories of the place and a ready facility for speaking the Tongan language. He returned to Tonga in about 1909 and worked there in various positions for nearly 20 years: as a copra inspector, as a government interpreter, at one time as acting secretary to the premier, but primarily as a teacher in church and government schools, publishing Tongan-English materials all the while. He is pictured here in a dark suit, presumably with other officials; the man seated on the right is believed to be Joseph Meanata, who was the son of a New Zealand Māori who had settled in Tonga sometime before 1870.
Jack Whitcombe marries Kate Esther Woodhouse in Tonga, 1911
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
Jack's New Zealand sweetheart Kate joined him in Tonga and they were married there in the Wesleyan Church in Nuku'alofa on 26 June 1911.
Mele and Baby Takalesi, Nuku'alofa, 1912
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
Kate and Jack Whitcombe had their first child, a boy, in March 1912. Pictured here is a Tongan girl, Mele, holding baby Douglas.
Quarantined passengers at Vuna Wharf, Nuku'alofa, c.1918
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
In 1893, a measles epidemic, brought to Tonga aboard the SS Upolu from New Zealand, killed nearly 1,000 people. A generation later, in 1918, another New Zealand ship, the SS Talune, brought the 'Spanish' flu to Tonga. On its regular run from Auckland to Tonga, Fiji and Samoa, it made three stops in Tonga: Neiafu, Vava'u; Lifuka, Ha'apai; and Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu, where it arrived on 12 November 1918. Within a few days the disease had spread. There was heavy loss of life; estimates vary from between 1,800 and 2,000, or about 8% to 10% of the population.
Catholic school, Nuku'alofa, 1926
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
Many children pictured in this photograph had families with strong New Zealand connections. Some of those family names are: Day, Leger, Boyer, Santos, Whitcombe and Goodwin.
Rugby comes to Tonga, Nuku'alofa, 1923
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
Rugby was introduced in Tonga through the efforts of Jack Whitcombe and sustained by a New Zealand civil servant named George Goodacre. Shown here is what is said to be the first rugby team in Tonga. The rules and uniforms were provided by the Rugby Union of New Zealand.
'My Drum and Fife Band', Mu'a, c.1925
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
The inscription 'My drum and fife band' was found on the back of this photograph belonging to Jack Whitcombe.
Whitcombe family with Mr Moss's family and dog, Tongatapu, c.1924
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
A man named Mr Moss stands at the back of this photograph with his young wife and two of his children. Jack and Kate Whitcombe's six children, Douglas, Erica, Jean, Dorothy, Phyllis and Neville, are pictured here; Jack is standing on the left and Kate is seated with their youngest child Neville, on her lap while Douglas, the eldest is kneeling in front.
Queen Sālote Tupou and family in New Zealand, 1922
Photographer unknown
Collection of Kaeppler family
This photograph was featured in New Zealand's Auckland Star newspaper on 8 November 1922. Pictured are Tonga's third monarch, Queen Sālote Tupou, and her three sons, with Tainui's fifth Māori King, Koroki, on the marae at Rotorua, New Zealand. Also in the photograph are the Governor-General of New Zealand, Viscount Jellicoe (standing on the left) and Lili Bagnall (standing on the right); seated left to right: Feleti Vī (Ve'ehala), with young Prince Tāufa'āhau; Halaevalu Maile, holding Prince Tuku'aho; Tuna Vaea, and Simoa Tuita, with Prince Sione Ngū.
Folola Percival Archer and girls, Tauranga, New Zealand, c.1929
Photographer unknown
Collection of Percival-Archer family
Folola was born in Tonga in 1895; she married there a man named Archer who'd been working with the Government Printing Office in Nuku'alofa. Folola's first trip to New Zealand was in 1917, toward the end of World War I, and though she went back to Tonga several times, she became, according to her daughter Yolande, a 'proper New Zealander'. She is pictured here with her daughters.
Elizabeth Chatfield Jackson and son, Auckland, c.1929
Photographer unknown
Collection of Chatfield-Jackson family
Elizabeth Chatfield, daughter of Selwyn Chatfield and Sela Tapuaka, was born in Ha'apai, Tonga in 1905. In 1913, she was sent, along with two sisters to St Mary's Convent and then to Ladies' Finishing School in Auckland; she never returned to live in Tonga. Elizabeth is pictured here on Cheltenham Beach, Auckland, with her son Kerry.
Hansen–Page wedding photographs: Tonga and New Zealand, 1931
Photographer unknown
Collection of Hansen-Page family
Rosie Hansen was born in Vava'u in 1913, the eldest of several children of Hans Jorgen Hansen and Seini Fakaongo. Seini died when Rosie was 12 and she assumed the role of mother to her younger siblings. When she was about 16, Rosie had the opportunity to visit her half-sister 'Ana, who had married and settled in New Zealand years earlier. While in New Zealand, Rosie met John Page and eventually married him. To please both families there was a ceremony in Tonga and another one in New Zealand.
Vaioleti Cocker aboard the SS Monowai II on her way to New Zealand, 1935. Fatafehi Tuita is standing on the left
Photographer unknown
Huirama Collection
Lu'isa Tupou Kafaloto Cocker, born in Tonga, was always known by the name Vaioleti. She was sent to New Zealand in 1935 at the age of 18 to join her Tongan father Joseph; he had served the New Zealand Forces in World War I and by then was married to a Māori woman, Liz Huirama, and living near Huntly. Vaioleti pined for her family in Tonga but eventually married Liz's brother, Reed, and settled in Ngaruawahia. She would often be seen there on the Tūrangawaewae Marae, working in the kitchen or sometimes sitting with the Māori Queen ... 'I speak Māori better than Tongan, I reckon – everybody always thinks I'm a Māori... hee hee hee.'
Birthday party, 1935
Photographer unknown
Collection of Ford-Hodgkinson family
This photograph was taken at Mayfair Hall, Newton, Auckland, on the occasion of the 21st birthday of George Scott Jr. George, in the middle of the photograph wearing a necklace, was born in Tonga and moved to New Zealand with his family in the 1920s. His mother, Kalolaine Lolohea, and sisters are pictured here with other Tongans, e.g. Minnie Ford, Kioa Vete, Amelia Lēveni, who settled in New Zealand in the early 1900s.
Disembarking from the MV Matua in Tonga, 1938
Photographer: David Beaglehole
F145961 ½
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
MV Matua, c.1936
Photographer unknown
1983.1783
Museum of Wellington City and Sea
The SS Tofua I completed its last Pacific Island run in 1932. Other ships, like the SS Monowai II and the Niagara, took over the circuit for a few years until the Union Steamship Company's MV Matua made its maiden voyage to Tonga, Samoa and Fiji in August-September of 1936. The Matua carries special meaning in the hearts of those who know the boat; it is remembered by many families as the lifeline between Tonga and New Zealand in the 1930s and 40s; it was replaced in 1952 by the MV Tofua II.
Aotearoa, S30 Short Empire flying boat approaching Nuku'alofa, October 1939
Photographer: August Hettig
Collection of Whitcombe family
The flying boat Aotearoa was the first such plane to land in Tonga, just at the outset of World War II. Special moorings had to be placed in the Nuku'alofa harbour, off Vuna Wharf, to accommodate the aircraft. The aeronautical team on board collected data that would be useful to the New Zealand military during the war, and the journey served as a test run for mail delivery between New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga.
Horse race on the beach, Tongatapu, World War II
Photographer: Tudor W. Collins
Collection of Denny family
During World War II, thousands of American military were stationed in Tonga. Some New Zealand troops joined them, including a nurse, Mary Webster Wilson. She kept a journal about her stay there, which includes all kinds of ephemera for example, R.N.Z.A.F. notices for parties and informal gatherings, and invitations to dances at Queen Victoria Hall in Nuku'alofa. Tucked away in one of the pages was a programme for horse races being conducted and sponsored by the New Zealand military staff. This photograph depicts those races.
Ship's cocktail party, Nuku'alofa, World War II
Photographer: Tudor W. Collins
Collection of Denny family
Tudor Collins was a New Zealand photographer known especially for his photography of the bush of New Zealand. He served as a military photographer with the New Zealand Navy during and after World War II. Unfortunately, for most of his photos of Tonga, there is no name identification available.
Vailima Meanata, New Zealand 28th Māori Battalion, in uniform in Egypt, World War II
Photographer unknown
Collection of Meanata family
Sometime in the late 1860s, a teenage Māori boy named Pita Meanata (Maynard) jumped aboard a whaling ship with a mate named Albert Cook, at Russell in the Bay of Islands. The boat was headed for the islands and, when it reached Tonga, the two young men hopped off. They spent the rest of their days in Tonga, never returning to New Zealand. Pita became known as Pita Nu'usila (Peter New Zealand); he worked, took a Tongan wife, had a family and died there. Pita Nu'usila's son, Joseph Tauaika Meanata, was born in 1871. He, too, remained in Tonga, married and had a family and died during the 1918 influenza epidemic. As a young man, Joseph's son, Vailima, renewed ties with his New Zealand Māori family; he honoured his New Zealand connection by serving in the New Zealand Forces during World War II. Vailima was assigned to B Company, 28th Māori Battalion; he is pictured here in uniform in Egypt.
Soldiers of the Māori Battalion putting down an umu (hangi) in Egypt, World War II
Photographer unknown
Meanata Collection
Group interned at Somes Island, Wellington, World War II
Photographer unknown
Collection of Tu'inukuafe family
An order was given by the Premier of Tonga, Solomone Ata, on 19 December 1941, just after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour; he announced the detainment in Tonga and immediate transfer to New Zealand of 14 Japanese and 10 German males: K. Nisi, K. Yamashita, M. Saito, K. Ota, T. Ueno, S. Joshita, K. Nagashima, T Khoda, T. Taiji, J. Nakao, S. Kiyono, S. Minami, I. Saraye, G. Banno, G. Guttenbeil, L. Schober, L. Brahne, K. Witzke, H. Guttenbeil, A. Schulke, O. Schaumkel, R. Sanft, O. Sanft, O. Wolfgramm. Notice from the High Commissioner in Fiji informed the British Agent and Consul in Tonga that 14 Japanese and 10 German male internees were on their way via Fiji to New Zealand on 26 December 1941. Among others also interned were: F. Schober, B. Brahne, W. Wolfgramm, W. Ostermann, O. Brahne, and F. Wolgramm, and Tongans who were employed in Fiji at the time: H. Zuckschwerdt, W. Behnke, F. Nehm, P. Stoebener, and O. Haindl.
This photograph depicts a few of the men while interned on Somes Island, Wellington, New Zealand. Two of the men pictured here died in internment: Hermann E. Guttenbeil, on 15 June 1943 of cardiac failure and Ludwig A. Schober on 5 February 1943 of an appendicitis attack. Both were buried in New Zealand.
Street scenes Tonga, 1940s
Photographer unknown
Collection of Denny family
Double wedding of Queen Sālote's sons, 'Tāufa'āhau and Tu'ipelehake (Sione Ngū), Nuku'alofa, 1947
Photographer unknown
PA 996 Tonga 5252
Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
National Library of New Zealand
Among the distinguished guests at the wedding in Nuku'alofa was the Tainui Māori leader Princess Te Puea Herangi. She is pictured in the background of this photograph wearing a white scarf.
Fakamāvae: farewell at Vuna Wharf, Nuku'alofa, sometime after World War II
Photographer: Tudor W. Collins
Collection of Denny family
Three well-known figures
Photographer unknown
Collection of Whitcombe family
The New Zealand Māori Tainui leader Princess Te Puea Herangi and the Tongan chief Kalaniuvalu are standing with the famous sea turtle Tu'imalila, said to be the gift of Captain Cook on one of his visits to Tonga in the 1770s. The photograph was taken on the occasion of the double wedding of Queen Sālote's two sons, Tāufa'āhau and Tu'ipelehake, Nuku'alofa, 1947.
New Zealand sailors from the RNZ Rotoiti with a group of Tongans at Neiafu, Vava'u, sometime after the end of World War II
Photographer: Tudor W. Collins
Collection of Denny family
Waiting on Vuna Wharf, Nuku'alofa, sometime after the end of World War II
Photographer: Tudor W. Collins
Collection of Denny family
Meeting the boat, Vuna Wharf, Nuku'alofa, sometime after World War II
Photographer: Tudor W. Collins
Collection of Denny family
