IN FIJI, A LINK WITH
THE ROMANTIC PAST
SHE HAS 128
DESCENDANTS
- AND
ROYAL BLOOD
In his book, Tahiti—lsland of Love, Robert Langdon
gives us an intimate glimpse of the very early life of Queen
Pomare IV, of Tahiti. She was a 14-year-old hoyden, Aimata,
when her brother died in an influenza epidemic, and she
assumed the royal title. This was about 1826.
lays Langdon: “The new Queen
5 just at the age when Polynesian
s go wild. . . Abandoning the
'eminent to the chiefs, she spent
days and nights having fun with
r s and girls of her own age”.
According to Langdon, it was
arently about 1830-32 that
isionary George Pritchard became
uential in Tahiti and “the Queen
> induced to give up her dissolute
fs and take an interest in govern
it”.
Romantic story
'his ties in with a romantic story
nd in the memories of Mrs. Vai
omoli Corrie, 86, of Suva,
ording to data given by Mrs.
rie to a PIM correspondent, Mrs.
rie is a direct descendant of an
gular union between Queen
lare and a king of Tonga.
Irs. Corrie has all the genealogical
tils.
(ueen Pomare, while very young,
pursuing pleasure rather than
srnmental duties, visited Nukua
. She then was about 17 years
and she had a romantic affair
i a Tongan noble, whom she
Tibes as “Inoke Fotu, who later
ime King of Tonga”.
Aimata Pomare bore Inoke a son,
just before she was obliged to return
home and begin her long, unhappy
reign as Queen of Tahiti; and her
son was brought up by relations at
Holonga, in Tonga. Later, Inoke be
came king of Tonga.
According to Mrs. Corrie, the
king on one occasion visited
Holonga, and was introduced to his
illegitimate son, and made a fuss over
him.
The son’s name was Semisemilolo
Oehau, and he married Akesa, who
was half Tongan, half Rotuman.
They had six children, all born in
Tonga.
One of their girls was named
Analea, and she married, in Tonga,
Charlie Knowle, who was the son
of an Englishman and his Tongan
wife.
The Knowles had four children,
and the youngest of these, born in
Tonga, in 1882, was Vai Lolomoli.
She married, first, in Fiji, a member
of the Emberson family, of Fiji, and
they had one son. She later married
Alexander Corrie, and they had seven
children.
Mrs. Vai Lolomoli Corrie’s
descendants now number 128 (seven
children, 35 grand-children, 84 great
grand-children, and two great-great
grand-children).
If the old lady]s memories are
correct —and she is quite definite
about her claim, and it has never
been challenged—all of them can
claim that they carry the blood of
two royal families—namely, those of
Tonga and Tahiti. The Tahitian royal
family was pushed into discard by
the French long ago, but the Pomare
strain still is very much alive.
OLD JAPANESE BASE
FOUND NEAR RABAUL
Yet another reminder of the
Japanese occupation of the New
Guinea Islands has been unearthed
on New Britain—the headquarters of
the Japanese operations against the
Allies in 1942-43.
Members of the Rabaul Lions Club
discovered an extensive underground
operational base recently at Malma
luan, five miles outside Rabaul.
The base, a few feet under the
earth, had lain undisturbed since
1945. It included several tunnels and
rooms—one of which appeared to
have been a radar room.
Rabaul Lions hope to clean the base
up and promote it as a tourist attrac
tion.
Mrs. Vai Lolomoli Corrie, 86, of Suva, and
her grand-daughter, Mrs. Meta Hussain.
87
CIFIC ISLANDS MONTHLY AUGUST, 1968
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