On September 10 the King of Tonga died at age 88. He is famous for tipping the scales at nearly 500 pounds. His mother attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. But other than that most people don�t think of monarchy when they think of the south pacific regions. But there have been sovereigns of these island nations for centuries before those in Europe even existed. Of course once the European explorers got back home with proof that all the riches did not necessary lie in China, it wasn�t long before their kings sent out the feelers. Right from the start though, Tonga�s first great warrior king had everyone�s respect.

Lying east of Fiji and south of Samoa is the tiny 170 square mile kingdom of Tonga. The word tonga means �south� in many Polynesian languages, and presumably its population originally came from Samoa, although there are no written records. The three main islands are Tongatapu, Vava�i and Ha�apai. At one time the king was all-powerful and sacred. A list of these kings goes back to the 10^th century. Their powers reached their zenith in the 13^th century when reportedly chiefs still had influence over what went on in Samoa. During the 14^th century the then chief (Tu�i) decided he just wanted to take care of the spiritual matters of his archipelago and turned the temporal end over to his brother. Later on the brother, who succeeded him as king, further divided things up into thirds: spiritual authority over most of Polynesia was kept for himself, the Tu�i Tonga, while daily matters were split between two other kings-the Tu�i Ha�Atakalava and the Tu�i Kanakupolu.

So things stood until 1616, when the first Dutch explorers anchored off an outlying group of islands called Niuas. Abel Tasman (after whom Tasmania is named) landed on Tongatapu in 1643. Over a century later Captain James Cook visited the �Friendly Islands� twice, in 1773 and 1777. Little did he know that the happy nobles he had encountered were all fighting each other for the honour of slaughtering his tiny crew. Since nobody won Cook sailed away for the last time in 1777. Soon though the three kings got fed up with the democratic way and started a prolonged series of nasty civil wars over who was boss.

This savagery was finally ended in 1845 by the great chief Taufaahau, who declared himself King George Tubou I, in honour of Britain�s King George III. He also changed his queen�s name to Queen Charlotte. King George had come under the influence of Weslayan missionaries and converted to Christianity in 1831. Tonga became a version of a constitutional monarchy, based on the British system. He abolished serfdom in 1862, and declared that every 16-year-old male could rent for life, for a small fee of course, 8 � acres of planting land called an api, and 3/8 of an acre inside the village to build a house. This law is still in effect, but because there isn�t any land left today�s kids are out of luck.

King George had a profound effect on his little part of the Pacific. During his reign that lasted from 1845 to his death in 1893, he made treaties with France, Germany, the U.S. and Great Britain, all of which recognized his sovereignty and Tongan independence. On May 18, 1900, he signed a Treaty of Friendship with Great Britain, which left the king to manage Tonga�s affairs while Britain looked after the protection of his 150 coral islands from outsiders. June 1 is Tongan National Day, the date King George officially ended the old savage chiefdom system. After him came George II and III, then Queen Salote Tupoa III (1918-1965), mother of the just-deceased George IV. He is succeeded by his son George V.

The same year his mother became queen, Crown Prince Tupouto�a Tungi was born on July 4, 1918, to Queen Salote and Prince Uiliami Tupoulahi Tungi, directly descended from the first king Tu�i Tonga, and also further back from the sky god Tangeroa. He was schooled by Methodist missionaries and went to college in Australia, where he excelled at sports, especially pole-vaulting. While he earned his degree in law at Sydney University he also took up surfing, introducing the sport to his Tongans when he returned, as well as enjoying diving.

He married Princess Mata�aho in 1947. Two years later the Queen appointed him not only prime minister but gave him foreign affairs, education, works and agriculture. He also took on the heads of numerous boards overseeing communications, finance, justice; and produce marketing. In a 1962 interview he declared himself, �a bit of a Pooh-bah� except that I don�t cut off any heads�. The Queen chose him as her successor and two years after her death, on his 49^th birthday in 1967, he was crowned King Taufa�ahau Tupoa IV in the royal chapel at Nuku�alofa.

At first the 6 foot 4 inch King, (who eventually ballooned in weight to 490 pounds, which probably caused the heart problems he died of, and landed him in the Guinness World Record books as the heaviest monarch), was all about education. Tonga enjoys a very high literacy rate. But he also decided that only the best-educated Tongans got into government, so he declared that only the monarch had the right to appoint one-third of the 27- member Legislature. The people elect nine and 33 nobles elect the final nine. According to him the intelligentsia, ��are not the best campaigners. We have not had one person with a degree elected-they have all been appointed by me�.

Of the King�s five children, the eldest son Crown Prince Tupouto�a, a graduate of Sandhurst, now 58, was set to succeed him. The Prince is unmarried, has no children and owns many of Tonga�s biggest businesses. This is going to be a problem for him because the old king had been getting more and more a Pooh-bah in recent years; and this has led to the formation of a pro-democracy movement looking for constitutional reform. And now the new King still owns the country�s brewery, power company, airline and mobile (cell) phone company. Last year resentment of all this control in the hands of one family led to a six-week public service strike. Schools were wrecked, gas bombs were thrown at the Prince�s business associates� homes and the royal palace was torched.

The Tongan flag is red with a red cross in a white square at the top left corner, a symbol of the country�s faith. The coat of arms was designed in 1862 and has on it three swords symbolizing the three lines of kings; a dove representing peace, three stars for the three main islands and a crown representing the king or queen. The people may have loved and cared for the old king, as he claims he did them, but how long they take to heart the words of their national anthem asking God to bless our land and �Grant our earnest supplication and save Tupou our King�, for his successor remains to be seen.

Tonga claims to be the only South Pacific monarchy in the world, but the inhabitants of the tiny volcanic islands of Wallis and Futuna- Uvea, Sigave and Alo- may disagree with that assumption.

Never heard of them? Well, me neither. Centuries ago they were created by massive volcanic explosions on the ocean floor, which created giant mountain ranges. The tops of these are seen today as these small island nations, under the control of France.

The British and the Dutch weren�t the only European nations to find the south pacific islands a fruitful resource centre. France founded a tiny colony of islands 700 miles east off the coast of Australia�s Queensland. called New Caledonia. While New Caledonia was a French dependency, the island itself administers the Isle of Pines, the Wallis Archipelago, the Huon Islands, Futuna and Afufu. Tucked onto the tiny islands of Wallis and Futuna are three kingdoms- on Uvea (the Polynesian name for Wallis island); Alo and Sigave in the Futuna group. They exist with France�s permission, each having their own flag, and a long list of chieftains who ruled under their own local laws, and not under the French Constitution. For instance, there are no property laws; which means you really don�t own anything, and any third party can come along and claim anything you bought.

There is little record of the islands being inhabited before 1400 BC. Tongans had invaded south Uvea in 1460 and started some legendary battles ending with Tu�i Tonga taking over. The Islanders eventually won their independence in the 17^th Century, but the Tongan line established the nobility from which today�s kings descend.

Along about 1767, English navigator Captain Sam Wallis dropped anchor on south Uvea, after he had happened on Tahiti. After that it wasn�t until 1825 when European whalers and merchant ships began calling in at Wallis for supplies and water. Naturally they started taking advantage of the natives. This practice was curtailed in 1837 when two French missionaries arrived on Wallis and Futuna respectively, converted all the people to Catholicism by 1842, and developed a constitution that protected the people from these aggressors. In 1892 Queen Amelia signed a treaty with France, which claimed her kingdom as a �Protectorate of the Wallis and Futuna Islands�. The capital and largest city is Mata-Utu on Wallis.

In 1942, to block the Japanese from landing there the United States marines established a base. They employed locals. They were followed by the forces of the Free French, who stayed on. Unfortunately when the marines left most of their heavy equipment was tossed into the larger crater lakes. In 1959 the people voted in a referendum to ask for French government supervision and became a French Overseas Territory in 1961.

Today, although the Head of State is the French President, each of the three islands has its hereditary king, who serves in the government and assists in dealing with local affairs. The Lavelua family sires the king on Wallis. On Alo he comes from the Tu�i agaifo and on Sigave from the Tu�i Sigave, Keltaona or Tamolavai. families. Currently the kings are: Uvea-Tomasi Kulimoetoki II since 1959; Alo-Soane Patita Maituku since 2002; Sigave-Visesio Moeliku since 2004.

The history of Futuna and Alo is not too well documented. It is believed that Tongans, Samoans or Marshall Islanders were the first to settle on these two tiny atolls. Two Dutch navigators arrived in 1616, and named them the Hoon Islands, as they somehow bore a resemblance to a town in Holland with that name. Okay.

There is a bit of a tourist industry there but they are working islands and do not have any resort-style accommodation. There is a small airport on Walls and on Futuna. Wallis is a semi-desert surrounded by a huge lagoon teeming with exotic sea life. Futuna has gorgeous beaches on its east coast and dormant, foliage-covered volcanoes in its center. Although two small villages are indicated on maps of Alo, it is said to be uninhabited full-time.

Each island has its own flag, but there is some controversy. Alo�s and Sigave�s are royal standards but the French tricolor is in two different places on them. For those interested in vexillogy, not even the local government is sure of the correct placement. Apparently the problem stems from their flags being printed backwards on Australian stamps.

And now we leave the tropics for an island kingdom completely different. Well, actually the island is a tiny piece of frozen rock in the high arctic waters, its ownership again under dispute by Denmark and Canada. But to His Serene Highness the Prince of Tartupaluk (Greenlandish for Hans Island), this disputed hunk of ice is his.

Cavan van Ulft announced that August 13, 2006 was Independence Day for the 203^rd sovereign state in the world. The Prince couldn�t afford the cost of a helicopter to take him to his nation, so he had to hire a boat to take him up the strait. The 27-year-old biology student took on the project by writing 200 letters to the world�s leaders declaring the existence of his new country. Said his father, �...some kids go off to Europe after graduation�� As far he knows Cavan got close to the island, but bad weather has kept him from actually setting foot on it.

According to his research Hans Island lies between Ellesmere Island (Canada) and Greenland (Denmark). As neither country can agree on who owns it, a border was drawn to its southern and northern shores, but not across the land itself. So by van Ulft�s reasoning, since under international law neither has a claim on it, he made one. The dispute over the 1.3 square kilometre rock has been going on since 2004. The Prince is really looking forward to going back up there as soon as the spring thaw lets him. He really loves it up there. �Looked a lot like Canada�, he said. Well, only from Santa Claus�s workshop window maybe. Good luck Your Highness.

Speaking of luck, happy 22nd belated birthday wishes to Prince Harry for September 15. (I remember because it�s only five days after mine.)

Anon, and happy autumn, or spring, unless you�re on Tonga, Wallis or Tartupaluk where it�s always summer-or winter.