Frail King home to Tonga for a big day

King Taufa'ahau Tupou, in a wheelchair, is lifted into the Centenary Church by Tongan Army staff. Picture / Dean Purcell

NUKU'ALOFA - Wheelchair-bound King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV's feet did not even touch the ground of the kingdom he has ruled for 40 years when he arrived back in Tonga.

The ailing monarch came home from Auckland, where he has been receiving medical treatment, to attend celebrations of his 88th birthday.

Accompanied by his doctor, King Tupou arrived at Fua'amotu Airport on a regular Air New Zealand flight.

He was kept from public view in the curtained business section and then by a covered platform that was raised to the aircraft door.

A brass band welcomed him, competing with the whining jet engines and a strong northerly wind which scattered the notes away from the crowd and down the runway.

It was a relatively cool 24C but the King was shielded by two large black umbrellas.

King Tupou was quickly transferred to the royal Transit van, licence plate HM 9, his distinctive silhouette visible through the dark tinted windows.

A large sign, "Welcome your Majesty, may you live many more year", greeted him as he left the airport grounds.

In Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, a sign advertising a duty-free shop and French perfumes stretched over the waterfront road to also wish the King a happy 88th birthday.

But while the paths of the commercial centre appeared recently swept, litter was strewn along the waterfront, where by 5pm young drunks were hassling tourists for money.

His birthday tomorrow, not as numerically significant as his 85th, will be by comparison a low-key celebration, but made more poignant by his fragile health.

King Tupou made his first official public appearance yesterday at the Centenary Church, a heavy concrete building close to the heart of Nuku'alofa and near his palace.

He arrived in his van, preceded by a police jeep and two traffic officers on cream motorcycles.

The King's entrance was made without fuss - he was wheeled up a ramp near the front of the plain Methodist church.

The congregation numbered about 500 but the cavernous building could have easily taken a couple of hundred more.

Slumped in his wheelchair, wearing dark glasses and dark clothing, King Tupou sat on a raised recess to the side of the pulpit next to his wife, Queen Halaevalu Mata'aho Ahome'e.

The man once statuesque in his kingdom - he was said to have been the world's heaviest monarch - seemed humble and deflated, barely moving throughout the service until he was mildly roused to look up by the first gentle hymn, sung by the Maopa Choir.

About 40 minutes into the service an attendant checked on him, and his daughter, Princess Pilolevu Tuita, seated behind, gave a nod.

The King was quietly wheeled back outside, and a photographer from the National Geographic magazine was politely told by a minder to keep his distance.

Outside, a Tongan woman said it was important for the people to see their King who had been away for three months because of his poor health.

"We still love the King regardless of the problems," she said.

"I think most of us are loyal; only a few are not."

The country, beset by poverty, has faced unrest fuelled by dissatisfaction with the monarchial rule and the widening gulf between the haves and have-nots.

The King did not return to Tonga to open Parliament last month, and a group of MPs tried to challenge his power by claiming its opening by Princess Pilolevu, acting as regent, was illegal.

The Chief Justice ruled against the MPs, confirming the strength of the country's 131-year-old constitution.

Steve Finau, from the Prime Minister's office, said the King had missed other events he would normally attend, including the Conference of the Methodist Church and the anniversary of 140-year-old Tupou College last week.


LONG TO REIGN

* King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV came to power in 1965 after his mother, Queen Salote, died of cancer.

* As the King's health has deteriorated, his eldest son and heir, Crown Prince Tupouto'a, has become the power behind the throne.

* Tongan politics, strongly in the hands of the royal family, has been challenged in recent years by a pro-democracy movement. Some liberalisation has occurred.

* The economy depends on remittances from Tongans living abroad, mainly in New Zealand, Australia and the US.