Kingdom of Tonga


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The Queen Mother was a lovely, genuine person. her facial expressions at times were hilarious and she had a great love for the poor and disabled. The head of one of the charities the Queen Mother supported said that she always arrived with gifts for everyone and would ask people what they needed and then would ask her lady in waiting to pop out to the shops to buy the things. On one occasion she asked a lady if there was something she needed, and when she said she needed a pair of shoes the Queen slipped off her own shoes to let the lady try them. They fitted, and the Queen continued the rest of her visit in her bare feet. Now that's what you call a Queen.


"May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest."
 
The Queen Mother was a lovely, genuine person. her facial expressions at times were hilarious and she had a great love for the poor and disabled. The head of one of the charities the Queen Mother supported said that she always arrived with gifts for everyone and would ask people what they needed and then would ask her lady in waiting to pop out to the shops to buy the things. On one occasion she asked a lady if there was something she needed, and when she said she needed a pair of shoes the Queen slipped off her own shoes to let the lady try them. They fitted, and the Queen continued the rest of her visit in her bare feet. Now that's what you call a Queen.


"May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest."


So very lovely!

She left a son, King Tupou VI, a daughter Princess Pilolevu, an adopted daughter Ilima Fifita, fourteen grandchildren (including three adopted ones) and eight great-grandchildren (including one adopted).
Two her sons predeceased her - Prince Fatafehi Alaivahamama in 2004, King George Tupou V - in 2012.

Source: Tupou10
 
So very lovely!

She left a son, King Tupou VI, a daughter Princess Pilolevu, an adopted daughter Ilima Fifita, fourteen grandchildren (including three adopted ones) and eight great-grandchildren (including one adopted).
Two her sons predeceased her - Prince Fatafehi Alaivahamama in 2004, King George Tupou V - in 2012.

Source: Tupou10

The adopted daughter is actually her granddaughter. She is the illegitimate daughter of King George Tupou V.
 
Nice video about a lovely lady.



What I love about that video is when Her Late Majesty is blowing out the candles on her birthday cake, it is being held by a well known LGBTQI advocate and transgender identity Joleen Mataele, who is a close family friend to HRH Princess Salote Mafileʻo Pilolevu Tuita, the Princess Royal.
 
Evolution of the Throne Room of Tonga

HM Queen Salote Tupou III

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos...een-salote-tubou-picture-id50641277?s=612x612

HM King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos...-tupou-iv-in-the-picture-id56049907?s=612x612

HM King Siaosi Tupou V

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos...directs-his-niece-princess-picture-id82128429

http://www.royalpalace.to/img/gallery/privy_council/img1.jpg

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos...e-throne-room-of-picture-id82128329?s=612x612

HM Tupou VI

https://fj.ambafrance.org/local/cache-vignettes/L945xH630/f83807484c8bb19d-9d415.jpg

The Royal Palace website is back up and running and looking magnificent with some lovely multimedia content.

Tonga Royal Palace | Welcome

The Evolution of the Royal Palace in Nuku'alofa.

1880-1889

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/da...KNgymnkrXw__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJKNBJ4MJBJNC6NLQ

1900

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Royal_Palace_of_Tonga_in_1900.jpg

Undated but before the visit of HM Queen Elizabeth and HRH The Duke Of Edinburgh in 1953

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/queen-salote-tubuos-royal-palace-picture-id50641276?s=612x612

1953

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos...urtle-which-had-picture-id105220167?s=612x612

Undated but with the old palace fence.

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx55/phrag99/Royalpalace-2.jpg

Undated - but you can see it has started to decline in splendour and a new fence was erected to protect the Palace Grounds after a public incident.

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/royal-palace-picture-id148937116

Undated - in a general state of decline.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Tonga_Royal_Palace.jp

HM George V legacy to the Royal Palace.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-srfeROGAw...EYo/PtUGckb1EuU/s1600/South+Pacific+-+120.jpg

http://www.traveladventures.org/countries/tonga/images/nukualofa13.jpg

http://www.sraa.co.nz/ic/180119310/1006_1_resized.jpg

http://www.sraa.co.nz/ic/2193048200/1006_2_resized.jpg

http://www.sraa.co.nz/ic/200607928/1006_4_resized.jpg

http://www.sraa.co.nz/ic/3201802624/1006_3_resized.jpg

http://www.sraa.co.nz/ic/1932840616/1006_6_resized.jpg

His Late Majesty King Siaosi Tupou V leaving the Royal Palace grounds for the last time with royal mourning bunting adorning the great building legacy he created. A fitting Royal Palace for his brother, HM King Tupou VI.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/03/27/article-2120923-12592A56000005DC-330_964x583.jpg
 
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Nice video about a lovely lady.



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Thank you very much for the photos No1_Saint, they are great.
 
Evolution of the Throne Room of Tonga

HM Queen Salote Tupou III

the-throne-room-in-the-palace-of-queen-salote-tubou-picture-id50641277


HM King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV

prince-andrew-sits-with-his-majesty-king-taufaahau-tupou-iv-in-the-picture-id56049907


HM King Siaosi Tupou V

tongas-new-monarch-king-siaosi-tupou-v-directs-his-niece-princess-picture-id82128429


img1.jpg


tongas-new-monarch-king-siaosi-tupou-v-arrives-in-the-throne-room-of-picture-id82128329


HM Tupou VI

f83807484c8bb19d-9d415.jpg

I had hoped that there would have been a new Throne Room in the enlarged palace. One with the throne on a dias beneath a canopy with the coat of arms on it. I felt sure that King George V would have insisted on that sort of thing.

The Throne Room as it is now just looks like a Drawing Room and I wonder why there is a curtain where the window used to be. Surely a nice picture would have been better.
 

The photo of the King sitting beside his mother's coffin is very poignant.

Another moan coming up.......I see that the entrance hall still has the sanded wood walls with the outline of the planks visible. I would have thought that something would have been done to hide that. I have never understood why the Throne Room was panelled but the hallway, Privy Council Room, the Sitting Room and probably all the other rooms, were left untouched.
 
I had hoped that there would have been a new Throne Room in the enlarged palace. One with the throne on a dias beneath a canopy with the coat of arms on it. I felt sure that King George V would have insisted on that sort of thing.

The Throne Room as it is now just looks like a Drawing Room and I wonder why there is a curtain where the window used to be. Surely a nice picture would have been better.

The Palace renovations and extensions were completed under his reign and completed in late 2011 not long before his passing. The design and finish was under his guidance. The budget was only $5,000,000 and had to include a very large new fence surrounding the entire Royal Palace Grounds.

The photo of the King sitting beside his mother's coffin is very poignant.

Another moan coming up.......I see that the entrance hall still has the sanded wood walls with the outline of the planks visible. I would have thought that something would have been done to hide that. I have never understood why the Throne Room was panelled but the hallway, Privy Council Room, the Sitting Room and probably all the other rooms, were left untouched.

I think the historicity of the building had to be considered when tastefully extending and renovating it. The Royal Palace is quite spartan compared to contemporaries in Europe, however the esteem in which it and it's occupants holds to the people of Tonga is supreme in their hearts.

Tonga palace extension details released | Radio New Zealand News

This is a planned renovations of the grounds devised under the guidance of HM King Siaosi Tupou V. Alas, they have not come to fruition and I doubt very much they will. It would have looked magnificent. I would also love to see a grand royal dining hall similar to Kimiora at Turangawaewae Marae, the residence of Te Arikinui Kiingi Tuheitia, the Maori King.

I am not sure what they did behind the curtain, it may form a private entrance for the King to enter and exit the throne room rather than through the front door.

Royal Palace of Tonga - LA4 Landscape Architects

Thank you very much for the photos No1_Saint, they are great.

Note the new areas of the Palace are simple and plain.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/12/article-2172683-13FF99A4000005DC-890_634x374.jpg

The new Royal Palace Archives.

http://www.parbica.org/content/Tonga4_tcm50-75029.jpg

http://www.parbica.org/conferences-and-events/conferences/parbica14/reports/tonga.aspx]Tonga - PARBICA

http://looppacificassets.s3.amazona..._mothers_death_announcement.jpg?itok=-XyPxEyU

http://i1264.photobucket.com/albums/jj494/AiKawasaki/20120710_mautohi_0188.jpg

Photobucket

http://www.anthonybailey.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Coronation-of-HM-King-Queen-Tonga3.jpg

http://www.diplomatmagazine.nl/wp-c...and-Queen-Nanasipauu-Royal-House-of-Tonga.jpg

http://www.royalpalace.to/img/gallery/coronation_lunch/img3.jpg

I love these photos of their Majesties.

http://www.royalpalace.to/img/gallery/coronation_lunch/img1.jpg

https://news.byu.edu/sites/default/files/photos/Coronation_10.jpg

https://news.byu.edu/sites/default/files/photos/Coronation_12.jpg

https://news.byu.edu/sites/default/files/photos/_W6A3293.jpg

https://news.byu.edu/sites/default/files/photos/_W6A3632.jpg

https://news.byu.edu/sites/default/files/photos/_W6A3980.jpg

https://news.byu.edu/sites/default/files/photos/_W6A3986.jpg

https://news.byu.edu/sites/default/files/photos/GoPro_Kava_03.jpg
 
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I think the historicity of the building had to be considered when tastefully extending and renovating it. The Royal Palace is quite spartan compared to contemporaries in Europe, however the esteem in which it and it's occupants holds to the people of Tonga is supreme in their hearts.

Tonga palace extension details released | Radio New Zealand News

This is a planned renovations of the grounds devised under the guidance of HM King Siaosi Tupou V. Alas, they have not come to fruition and I doubt very much they will. It would have looked magnificent. I would also love to see a grand royal dining hall similar to Kimiora at Turangawaewae Marae, the residence of Te Arikinui Kiingi Tuheitia, the Maori King.

I am not sure what they did behind the curtain, it may form a private entrance for the King to enter and exit the throne room rather than through the front door.

Royal Palace of Tonga - LA4 Landscape Architects

The palace was always very modest compared to many palaces but that was the reason I have always been fascinated by it. You can almost imagine yourself living there. I can understand wanting to retain much of the historical elements of the palace but I'm sure the panelling in the Throne Room is not original.

I agree that a Dining Hall would have been a great idea. I presume there is a dining room in palace now because there wasn't one in the "old" palace and I think the Privy Council Room doubled as one.

You may be right about the private entrance although a door would look better than a curtain.


Yes they are plain, a bit too plain for me. Some panelling along the bottom part of the walls would have broken things up a bit. I'm also not very keen on the lighting. It makes it look a bit like an office.

I meant to say that I'm glad you posted the photo of the palace before the upstairs veranda was erected. I had never seen it like that.


I really like the old palace in Ha'apai although the photo says it's in Nuku'alofa. I actually think it was the more beautiful of the two. I believe Queen Salote sold the palace to pay off her father's debts.


I often wonder what the interior of the royal palace in Papeete was like. I've seen photos of the outside and it was very nice and I have never been able to find a photo of the royal palace in Rikitea. You would have thought that someone would have photographed it.

I meant to thank you for posting the photo of the Palace before the upstairs veranda was erected. I have never seen it before.

I really like the former palace in Ha'apai. In my opinion it was the more beautiful of the two. I believe Queen Salote sold it to pay off her father's debts. I tried to upload a photo but for some reason it won't let me.

I often wonder what the interior of the royal palace in Papeete was like. I've seen photos of the outside and it was very nice and I have never been able to find a photo of the royal palace in Rikitea. You would have thought that someone would have photographed it.
 
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The palace was always very modest compared to many palaces but that was the reason I have always been fascinated by it. You can almost imagine yourself living there. I can understand wanting to retain much of the historical elements of the palace but I'm sure the panelling in the Throne Room is not original.

I agree that a Dining Hall would have been a great idea. I presume there is a dining room in palace now because there wasn't one in the "old" palace and I think the Privy Council Room doubled as one.

You may be right about the private entrance although a door would look better than a curtain.

I think the panelling in the throne room is original, it was there at the time of Queen Salote, perhaps she had it altered, details like this is difficult to come by. Yes, I think there are a few ancillary rooms in the palace that can be used for dining purposes for smaller groups. The larger royal banquets are serviced by giant marquees or in the Queen Salote Memorial Hall.

I meant to thank you for posting the photo of the Palace before the upstairs veranda was erected. I have never seen it before.

I really like the former palace in Ha'apai. In my opinion it was the more beautiful of the two. I believe Queen Salote sold it to pay off her father's debts. I tried to upload a photo but for some reason it won't let me.

I often wonder what the interior of the royal palace in Papeete was like. I've seen photos of the outside and it was very nice and I have never been able to find a photo of the royal palace in Rikitea. You would have thought that someone would have photographed it.

I had stumbled across it before and it took some selective google searching to find it again. lol

I also liked the former palace in Ha'apai, it's a pity it no longer exists. I am not surprised that it could have been sold. Although I am not sure what happened to it after, there is a chance it was destroyed by storms or a cyclone.

https://www.odt.co.nz/sites/default...kualofa_tonga__otago_witness_8_4facd0b145.JPG

I did find this article about a royal residence in Ha'apai being blessed during a recent visit by HM the King to the island.

Blessing ceremony for Tau’akipulu palace as Ha’apai gears up for king’s arrival - Kaniva Tonga | Largest New Zealand-based Tongan news service

http://kanivatonga.nz/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Tauakipulu-emerge.jpg

This is what it looked like until recently.

https://scontent-syd2-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=c717a4f681310d19f297e0f19210686d&oe=59FCE20D

Yes they are plain, a bit too plain for me. Some panelling along the bottom part of the walls would have broken things up a bit. I'm also not very keen on the lighting. It makes it look a bit like an office.

You have hit the nail on the head there Iain. The new wings are essentially offices for either the privy council, the Royal Palace Archives or the headquarters for HM Armed Forces. They are the working areas of the Palace to separate the machinations of HM The King as Head of State away from the personal quarters of the Royal Family.

If you look in this photo, you can see some areas have a wainscoat around the walls.

http://www.anthonybailey.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Coronation-of-HM-King-Queen-Tonga3.jpg

An old photo of the Royal Palace showing the older fence and entry gates.

http://www.janesoceania.com/tonga_historical/tonga_palace.jpg

An interesting side view.

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx55/phrag99/QueenspalaceTonga.jpg

This is the tower being essentially deconstructed, refurbished and reconstructed before the coronation of HM Tupou V in 2008. The tower was in danger of collapsing forward.

http://mosttraveledpeople.com/images/temp/72_201007081442_111_TO4.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3403/3621781344_a372f87e16.jpg

This is the Royal Palace after the tower renovations were completed and the exterior repainted in 2008.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bRXB4YUomGE/TsmzXvjZOwI/AAAAAAAAAH4/qdRed2btm-g/s1600/IMG_1800.JPG

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MudzCx24M...AE4/TEK034oDCQE/s1600/342901909_Uz5iG-M-1.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L5zq0QbGF...AFA/HygrcFVBUDw/s1600/342901932_GedeM-M-1.jpg

Notice the difference from when HM Tupou IV passed away.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iynpUmfDN...s320/George+Tupou+V+–+The+king+of+Tonga49.jpg

And here during the construction of the new wings you can see the small rooms that had been constructed on the verandah.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4w4fTj-Yf8w/T4iwxW1AEII/AAAAAAAACjc/hFqZCh8Rd2U/s1600/Tonga+2010+121.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...alace-extended.jpg/1280px-Palace-extended.jpg

I found it, a small view of details within the Royal Palace.

http://www.fulwoodmethodist.org.uk/fmcmag/autumn 2008/tonga/king.jpg

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xr/11...7AAE8E005E8427C255C39D1B5C113E30A760B0D811297

Note the blinds in the Throne Room at the back.

https://d16klsh1z1xre7.cloudfront.n...-disc001-file001-frame00180-size-original.jpg

The old Privy Council Room.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/92/JVallance_Wiki_King_85.jpg
 
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I had stumbled across it before and it took some selective google searching to find it again. lol

I also liked the former palace in Ha'apai, it's a pity it no longer exists. I am not surprised that it could have been sold. Although I am not sure what happened to it after, there is a chance it was destroyed by storms or a cyclone.

https://www.odt.co.nz/sites/default...kualofa_tonga__otago_witness_8_4facd0b145.JPG

That's the picture I tried to upload. Notice that it wrongly states that it's in Nuku'alofa. It was built in 1905 and sold to the trading company Burns Philip in 1918. Maybe they dismantled it.

You have hit the nail on the head there Iain. The new wings are essentially offices for either the privy council, the Royal Palace Archives or the headquarters for HM Armed Forces. They are the working areas of the Palace to separate the machinations of HM The King as Head of State away from the personal quarters of the Royal Family.

If you look in this photo, you can see some areas have a wainscoat around the walls.

http://www.anthonybailey.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Coronation-of-HM-King-Queen-Tonga3.jpg

I can understand "office lights" in an office but in rooms used for royal functions some nice chandeliers would be nice. I hadn't noticed the walls so thanks for pointing that out.
 
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I can tell you exactly where this is. It's the entrance hall, notice the archway, which can also be seen in the photo you posted of Queen Nanasipau'u standing in the hallway. They have put up a cloth to hide the staircase before taking the photo. Many years ago I saw a photo of Queen Salote and her half bother Vilai Tupou standing in a doorway. I didn't know the layout of the palace at that time but as all the ground floor rooms at the front and sides had bay windows I assumed the photo was taken at the back of the building. beyond the Queen could be seen a doorway with pictures on either side and a long time afterwards I saw a photo of the Queen and some guests standing outside the front door and realised that was where the photo of the Queen and her brother was taken.
At some point the interior door and walls have been removed and replaced with the archway.

This photo shows the interior door I was talking about.

http://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb3243313j/_3.jpg

Heritage et AL: Tongan Language Week

You can see a photo on here listed as the Tongan Throne Room, however it looks more like the Parliament building.

http://looppacificassets.s3.amazona...rliament_resumes_february_1.jpg?itok=A3X7ikUb

Yes, that's definitely the Parliament building. Here's the throne as it used to be.

Inmagic DB/Text WebPublisher PRO: 1 records

A few years ago there was a series on TV called Pacifica which would tell stories from different parts of the Pacific. On one occasion there was a short segment with Princess Pilolevu talking about the palace. It showed the entrance hall, Throne Room and Privy Council Room. She mentioned that the original thrones were no longer there although a picture of them was shown, and they were the seats that King Taufa'ahua Tupou IV was sitting on in the photo of him and Prince Andrew. She showed an old sideboard in the Council Room which was meant for keeping Privy Council stationary in, but she said that she and her brothers used to hide in it during games of hide and seek. The Princess mentioned that there where four bedrooms upstairs. I did read that Queen Salote had two bedrooms. Her Tongan one, where she slept on tapa and her European one with a bed.

Another programme showed King Taufa'ahua presiding over the Privy Council and also in the Sitting Room behind the Council Room. It had bookshelves and an old china cabinet and also a TV set and exercise machine. I assume this was his Sitting Room and that Queen Mata'aho had her own. In one of the books about Queen Salote it mentions her having a Sitting Room behind the Throne Room so perhaps she used it.

Most of the other palaces are not what springs to mind when thinking about a Royal Palace, especially the one in the Niuas. I wonder why the palace that King Taufa'ahua Tupou IV built in Eua was never used and left to rot away.
 
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I struck gold and found a photo I haven't seen before. This is after the coronation of HM Tupou V.

https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t...ig_cache_key=MTMxMzE1NzcxOTIzMzkyNzgxNw==.2.c

This is an unusual photo of HM Queen Salote praying. It has it at the Royal Palace but doesn't mention which one.

https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t...g?ig_cache_key=MTIzMDY2MjQ2OTAxODYyMjI0Mw==.2

The first photo shows just how small the Throne Room is. I've always like the photo of Queen Salote kneeling in prayer. A friend said that it is very humbling seeing a Queen kneeling on the floor saying her prayers. Going by the windows it's obviously not the Nuku'alofa palace.
 
I had stumbled across it before and it took some selective google searching to find it again. lol

I also liked the former palace in Ha'apai, it's a pity it no longer exists. I am not surprised that it could have been sold. Although I am not sure what happened to it after, there is a chance it was destroyed by storms or a cyclone.



I was correct about the palace having been dismantled. In her book, Salote Queen of Paradise, Margaret Hixon says that Burns Philps ‘salvaged the once magnificent boards and carted them away.’

She also quotes from, as she calls her, ‘English’ writer Mary Stuart Boyd who it turns out was actually Scots. She was in Ha’apai and visited the palace. Margaret Hixon gives a small quote but I managed to find all of what she wrote.


"An ornamental paling, inside which flourished a row of gorgeous croton-bushes, enclosed the king’s palace. There was no path across the unmown grass; and the large, yellow-bodied spiders of the latitude, acting in agreeable conformity with the statement of Solomon, had taken hold with their hands and suspended their webs from every angle of the white-painted verandah posts. On close inspection the residence, though but three years old, showed signs of dilapidation. There was no one in charge: an ornate door, several of its coloured-glass panels shattered, opened at a touch.
Within, the apartments were lofty and well-proportioned. The wall-paper in the dining-room was elaborately gilt, the carpet a sturdy brussels. Further, it held a commonplace modern sideboard, and a side-cabinet on whose top rested as hideous a pair of crystal-fringed girandoles as ever vile taste of trader exported.
Other furniture there was none. Ascending a carpeted stair, the neglected condition of whose brass rods would have made a conscientious housemaid weep, we came upon the royal bed-chamber. Here was the same incongruity displayed. The rusty iron frame of a huge tent bedstead occupied the centre of the floor. A couple of mattresses lay in a corner, and thrown carelessly upon them was a lace edged canopy of white sateen, evidently designed for the adornment of the great skeleton bed. That was all. In a third room, probably meant to serve as audience-chamber, a spasmodic attempt at thrift had partly rolled up the carpet, leaving exposed an under-lining of felt paper—a Northern petty economy which one smiled to encounter among the idyllic isles of the South Pacific. Perched on the roof was a little, many-windowed tower. In point of temperature, even so early as 10 A.M., it would have served as a practicable oven, while at noon it were safe to prophesy that a joint laid therein would have been certain to be overdone. Doubtless the same adviser who had counselled the purchase of a canopied iron bedstead for a monarch whose soul craves nought more lofty than a sleeping-mat, had deemed it advisable that a smoking-room in that tropical climate should be enclosed with heat-attracting glass. It was a relief to get outside even into the damp heat of the hurricane season, a heat which rendered every movement an exertion."

It seems to be a tradition in Tonga to allow palaces to fall into disrepair. LOL.
I note there was wallpaper in the palace and that would have been a good idea in the Nuku'alofa palace to hide the wood panels.
 
I was correct about the palace having been dismantled. In her book, Salote Queen of Paradise, Margaret Hixon says that Burns Philps ‘salvaged the once magnificent boards and carted them away.’

She also quotes from, as she calls her, ‘English’ writer Mary Stuart Boyd who it turns out was actually Scots. She was in Ha’apai and visited the palace. Margaret Hixon gives a small quote but I managed to find all of what she wrote.


"An ornamental paling, inside which flourished a row of gorgeous croton-bushes, enclosed the king’s palace. There was no path across the unmown grass; and the large, yellow-bodied spiders of the latitude, acting in agreeable conformity with the statement of Solomon, had taken hold with their hands and suspended their webs from every angle of the white-painted verandah posts. On close inspection the residence, though but three years old, showed signs of dilapidation. There was no one in charge: an ornate door, several of its coloured-glass panels shattered, opened at a touch.
Within, the apartments were lofty and well-proportioned. The wall-paper in the dining-room was elaborately gilt, the carpet a sturdy brussels. Further, it held a commonplace modern sideboard, and a side-cabinet on whose top rested as hideous a pair of crystal-fringed girandoles as ever vile taste of trader exported.
Other furniture there was none. Ascending a carpeted stair, the neglected condition of whose brass rods would have made a conscientious housemaid weep, we came upon the royal bed-chamber. Here was the same incongruity displayed. The rusty iron frame of a huge tent bedstead occupied the centre of the floor. A couple of mattresses lay in a corner, and thrown carelessly upon them was a lace edged canopy of white sateen, evidently designed for the adornment of the great skeleton bed. That was all. In a third room, probably meant to serve as audience-chamber, a spasmodic attempt at thrift had partly rolled up the carpet, leaving exposed an under-lining of felt paper—a Northern petty economy which one smiled to encounter among the idyllic isles of the South Pacific. Perched on the roof was a little, many-windowed tower. In point of temperature, even so early as 10 A.M., it would have served as a practicable oven, while at noon it were safe to prophesy that a joint laid therein would have been certain to be overdone. Doubtless the same adviser who had counselled the purchase of a canopied iron bedstead for a monarch whose soul craves nought more lofty than a sleeping-mat, had deemed it advisable that a smoking-room in that tropical climate should be enclosed with heat-attracting glass. It was a relief to get outside even into the damp heat of the hurricane season, a heat which rendered every movement an exertion."

It seems to be a tradition in Tonga to allow palaces to fall into disrepair. LOL.
I note there was wallpaper in the palace and that would have been a good idea in the Nuku'alofa palace to hide the wood panels.

Amazing find. Sorry for my absence, my new job has been insanely time consuming. I find that their doesn't seem to be a consistent maintenance schedule or budget.

An old photo of the Royal Palace and surrounding lands in the 1870's allegedly.
http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p312281/html/image/F910_45_181_p49_No288.jpg

A better view of the the front entrance hall as it looks now.

https://fj.ambafrance.org/local/cache-vignettes/L945xH630/c8186f3351355b11-12d3d.jpg
 
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An old photo of the Royal Palace and surrounding lands in the 1870's allegedly.
http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p312281/html/image/F910_45_181_p49_No288.jpg

What a great photo. The palace looks tiny without the verandas.


I see they're still insisting on using black paint, although thankfully, not as much as they used to have. The door into the Throne Room looks as if it has glass panels now.
 
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Congrats to parents, granparents and siblings!
What a lovely birthday gift for the mum! (she turned 31 that day).
 
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