Tonga

Tonga is the only Pacific island nation never formally colonised, and the instrument by which it avoided colonisation was in large part its conversion. Taufaahau, a chief of Haapai, accepted Christianity from the Methodist mission in the 1830s, took the name George, and used the mission connection, its literacy and its European contacts as tools in unifying the islands under a single monarchy. He became George Tupou I, and the constitution he granted in 1875 established a Christian kingdom with a written law code, which was precisely the kind of state the European powers of the period found it awkward to annex.

The Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga descends from that mission and the monarch is its head. Methodist, Catholic, Latter-day Saint and Seventh day Adventist churches divide the rest, and the Latter-day Saint share of the population is among the highest in the world.

Missionary translation gave Tongan its written form, and the church remains the principal institution of village life alongside the noble estates.

Older Tongan religion is remembered through its monuments rather than through practice. The Tui Tonga, the paramount line whose authority extended across a wide area of the Pacific, held a sacred office as well as a political one, and the langi, the stepped stone royal tombs at Lapaha, are its remains. The trilithon Haamonga a Maui, a stone gateway raised around the thirteenth century, is the other principal monument, and its purpose, including whether its markings relate to the solstices, is not settled.

Clause 6 of the Tongan constitution of 1875 declares the Sabbath day sacred in Tonga for ever, forbids the transaction of trade or the playing of games or work on that day, and provides that any agreement made or witnessed on the Sabbath is void and of no legal effect. It is not a preamble sentiment; it is an operative provision that voids contracts.

The practical result is one of the most complete weekly shutdowns anywhere. Shops close, markets close, public transport largely stops, commercial fishing and most work cease, and airlines have historically arranged schedules around it. Church attendance, in a country with several large denominations, fills the morning, and the day is otherwise given to family meals and rest.

Exceptions exist for necessity: hospitals, emergency services, essential utilities and the feeding of livestock. Tourist resorts on outer islands operate under separate arrangements, which has been a periodic subject of complaint.

The provision has been tested. A commercial dispute over whether an agreement made on a Sunday could be enforced turns directly on Clause 6, and the courts have had to consider how far the voiding provision reaches. Proposals to relax the rule for particular industries, including for flights and for fishing, have been raised repeatedly and have generally failed against strong church and public opposition.

Two observations. First, the clause is one of the very few examples in a modern constitution of a specifically sabbatarian rule with contractual consequences, which makes Tonga a standing case study in comparative constitutional law. Second, it is popular. The pressure to change it has come mostly from outside, and the pressure to keep it from inside.