King Tupou of Tonga – Good Lives, Well Lived
King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, 1918 -2006
On Sunday 10 September the King of Tonga died. I met him on several occasions. King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, 88, was the benign feudal ruler of Tonga, the South Pacific kingdom known as the Friendly Islands since the days of Captain James Cook. The King was the world’s only Methodist sovereign.
He had great respect for Wesley Mission Sydney, the church home of Tongans who came to Australia. With a Pacific colleague I planted 11 congregations of Tongan people, numbering about 3,000. Once a Government official informed me the King wanted my advice on some matters. I pondered what the problems would be. I was surprised when the King asked me: Should he as a Christian offer an uninhabited island as a nuclear waste dump for Western countries? Should he allow an extension of the airport runway so 747s could land, knowing they would bring thousands of tourists, which would result in the sexual exploitation of young girls and boys from the sexual tourist trade? Would he permit Japanese long-line trawling in their waters, as that would decimate the population of porpoise? I realised what heavy responsibilities of decision-making he had, especially as he was the only university graduate in the Government of Tonga at that time.
The king was a jovial man-mountain of energy. He was 1.9 metres tall and at his peak weighed 220 kilograms. A servant carried into my office a wide stool for him to sit on rather than strain my chairs. Yet while at Newington College and the University of Sydney he was an outstanding athlete who set a new all-championship pole vault record and who loved surfing and diving. Captain Cook first visited the 150 islands of Tonga in the 1770 and since that time it has been a peaceful and politically stable nation. The king was the eldest son of the famous Queen Salote Tupou III. He was the forty-third generation of direct descendants of Aho’eitu, the first supreme ruler who lived in the tenth century. His great-great-great-grandfather, King George Tupou I, was the one who established the kingdom in 1845 with the help of Methodist missionaries, and the king and family have remained ardent Christians ever since.
Jesus Christ once spoke about Himself returning to earth. He said, “No one knows the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, when the Son will come.” Jesus went on to explain that Christians should keep watch for His coming. I found an excellent example of this in the life of the king.
I received a telephone call from the Protocol Department of the Australian Government in Canberra about a royal visit of the King and Queen of Tonga. At the last moment, the king had decided he wanted to spend the weekend with the Tongan people of Wesley Mission and so we would have a royal visit the following Saturday night with a concert, speeches of loyalty and a feast with dancing and choral singing—the only problem was that I had less than 24 hours to prepare for it!
I contacted the members of the Tongan congregation and they were overjoyed. They soon had the feast ready—the pigs roasted, and the watermelon and yams cut up—and the dancing prepared. It is customary in a village when the king comes for a special house to be built for him. How could we build a special house in our auditorium? It was done overnight! Hundreds of green palm branches were brought in, and layer upon layer of Tapa cloth arrived and covered the floor of the auditorium.
The big wide stool was set in the centre, and all was ready for the coming of the king. The Australian police arrived, the security men went to their appointed positions, the Governor General’s Rolls Royce arrived, and the King and Queen of Tonga came in right on time. It was a wonderful weekend.
Afterwards I puzzled about how it had been possible to transform the auditorium and the theatre for the coming of the king in less than 24-hours notice. I found out from the people. They all said the same thing: “We keep special mats locked away at home in every village awaiting that day when the king would come. We always knew that one day he would come and we have been prepared ever since.” What a lesson! Christians know that they must be prepared for the coming of Jesus. In that regard we need to remember: Be prepared, rejoice, the King is coming! In my imagination last week I could picture the Tongan believers in heaven gathering around and singing as they do in their inimitable Pacific Island fashion. They would be singing to the tune, “The King is coming! The King is coming!” This week he came.
Harold Cottee A.M., 1926-2006
I knew Harold Cottee for thirty years. I first met him in 1977 when I was appointed to be Superintendent of Wesley Mission Sydney. Before coming to Sydney I had written a 500 page strategic plan for the Mission’s next twenty years. Part of it concerned the development of entrepreneurial enterprises and business that would fund charitable works, because I believed the church would not have enough money, and the Governments would not be keen to fund faith-based charities. Mr. Cottee who could well have the first such enterprise, a citrus orchard his father Harold W Cottee had bequeathed to the Mission. So I flew up from Melbourne knowing that there were many of Wesley’s Board who were not keen to become involved in such an enterprise.
I knew that Harold S Cottee had been Joint Managing Director of Cottee’s General Foods; a Director of many of Cottee Ltd’s Subsidiary Companies; In 1961, his father Harold W.Cottee O.B.E set up a citrus orchard/fruit block of 500 acres on virgin land at Paringa in South Australia’s Riverland. Upon his death in 1973, this property and the company Sunlush Pty Ltd, was left in HW’s estate to Wesley Mission Sydney.
The dividends were dedicated to help fund Wesley Dalmar Child and Family Care. To date, this has provided in excess of four million dollars in dividends. Wesley Dalmar Child and Family Care has helped 17180 children and 9225 families across Sydney and other parts of NSW in the past five years. They offer a wide range of services designed to prevent family breakdown, as well as caring for children and young people in need of care and protection.
The orchard contains 440 acres of citrus, predominantly Valencia oranges with some navels, lemons, grapefruit and mandarins, and 60 acres of almonds and olives. It requires 7 full time staff, with 30 picking crew. This fruit is sold for packing or juice. This Mission had several wholly owned subsidiary Boards operating under the direction of boards of Directors, and Mr Harold S. Cottee A.M. as Chairman and Managing Director of the Orchard Board took great pride in reporting progress to the Wesley Mission Board.
HW and Lois Cottee made a second contribution that is in the main building of the Dalmar Children’s Homes. The children were complemented for their outstanding health, and the Sydney Dental Hospital declared that they had the best teeth of any children in care. Dalmar had the voluntary services of two brothers, both dentists, and extensive free treatment was given in a fully equipped Dental Surgery named the Lois and Harold Cottee Dental Clinic.
The third contribution occurred in 1980. I had indicated in my Strategic Plan that we needed to do more for homeless youth. Despite not having any available money, I went house hunting.
We needed a large house, with at least a dozen bed-rooms close to the inner city. The price was likely to be astronomical. I reported our need to the Board and then mentioned we had a wonderful opportunity just reported to me. A group of German nuns wanted to leave Australia and return to Germany. They had dedicated themselves to helping young street girls and would only sell their property to another Christian organization that would carry on the same work. They had a convent in King Street Ashfield. It had a beautiful Chapel and 18 bedrooms.
I visited the nuns and told them of my plans to provide a centre for homeless girls and boys. I started to negotiate the price, but told them up front we did not have any money in hand, but that I was sure I could raise it. They negotiated and to my surprise mentioned an unbelievably low figure: $138,000. They needed only to pay debts and to leave for Germany.
After the Board meeting, Harold came into my office and said, “When you visit my mother next next, tell her about your plans, the convent, and your need of money. She may just help.” I did so and Lois said, “How much money do you need.” I replied, “I need a gift of $100,000.” Lois got up, got her chequebook and wrote out a cheque for $100,000! I was absolutely stunned!
I thanked her profusely, put the cheque carefully in my Bible, and started down to my car. At the bottom of the stairs she called out to me: “Where are you going to get the other $38,000?” I replied, “I don’t know, but with your donation, I am sure I can raise the rest.” Lois replied, “You silly young man. Why didn’t you ask me?” I replied, “Because I thought that mentioning $100,000 was about as much as I dare ask.” “Come back up here.” Lois took out her cheque book and wrote a second cheque for $38,000 and one beautiful Spring Day, we opened Cottee Lodge, with a brass plaque honoring the service of HW and Lois Cottee. Over the twenty five years since, Cottee Lodge in Ashfield has been home to thousands of Sydney homeless youth, and our administration centre for a large number of other houses in Sydney and the Central Coast.
There was a fourth involvement I would mention. The cost of caring for children in deep need was becoming a nightmare. I saw forty other agencies that cared for children close down because of financial pressure. I was opposed to selling off the spare land at Dalmar on the basis that God wasn’t making dirt any more. But we needed to use our vacant land. I planned to build one of three huge retirement villages on that land similar to the ones I have built in Victoria in the previous ten years. How could we use this land for Aged Care, yet still solve our problems in child care?
We set up the Dalmar Land Development Committee with Harold S. Cottee as the Chairman. After some months I remember the excitement as Harold and our then General Manager Stan Manning came to me with an idea. It was like turning on a light bulb. We would sell the land to ourselves.
We would sell off about 20% of the land to meet immediate needs, and then sell our Dalmar land to our own Aged Care division, and as we built and leased out units in the retirement village we could repay the land portion back to Child Care putting that in a trust fund to support children in perpetuity. It was a brilliantly simple idea. It worked. We built $100 million worth of retirement villages, brought Dalmar out of financial trouble, and set up a trust that has funded thousands of children in care until, this day.
Harold Cottee, throughout this life enjoyed spectacular success, growing Cottees and the Passiona Bottling Company until they became Australia’s largest food and beverage enterprise.
Harold was also Chairman and Director of Companies in motel, insurance, private investment, real estate and rural companies; Chairman of 3 radio station applications. Member and Chairman of Federal and State Government Committees of Enquiry into Papua New Guinea Co-operatives, restructuring gas industry pricing; electricity regulatory review and electricity performance; Commissioner of Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) and Assat, Australia’s first Satellite.
From his marriage in 1951 Olga shared in everything with him. Their three children and eight grandchildren are a credit to them. Harold very deservedly was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) for services to commerce and the community in 1985 and the Centenary Medal in 2001. His AM., placed him equal in honour with his Father, H.W.Cottee who had been awarded the O.B.E..
I was with Harold in the last hours of his life. As with his mother, I read the scriptures and prayed with him. I told him all that he meant to Wesley Mission and to me personally. I thanked him for his influence on my life and my business decisions. We prayed together for God’s peace, for freedom from pain, for strength for Olga and the children and grandchildren. Harold approved and thanked me. And I promised I would see him again. And I shall. He died a few hours later.
GORDON MOYES