Note 33 — Chapter IV · AGRICULTURAL TRIBES.

Mariner states that in Tonga property principally consists in plantations, canoes and houses. The plantations are owned by the chiefs and the nobles. Agricultural labourers are very much despised; they serve the chiefs on whom they are dependent. West tells us that “the feudal principle, that the whole country belonged exclusively to the king, regulated the disposal and tenure of lands,” and so the lower classes were in a slavelike condition. “Lands were held in fief. The great landlords derived them by hereditary right, in conjunction with their chieftainship, but held them at the will of the supreme ruler.” These landlords distributed their lands among their relations and followers33.