Story: Tongans

The last Pacific monarchy

Tonga is the only monarchy left in the Pacific. Here the New Zealand governor-general, Dame Silvia Cartwright, congratulates Tonga’s King Taufa‘ahau Tupou IV on his 85th birthday in July 2003.

Using this item

New Zealand Herald

Reference: 4 July 2003

by Martin Sykes

Permission of the New Zealand Herald must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Melenaite Taumoefolau, Tongans – Life in New Zealand, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/3908/the-last-pacific-monarchy (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Melenaite Taumoefolau, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 July 2024.

Comments

11 July 2017

Charmaine - while strictly speaking you are correct, Tonga is the only remaining Pacific monarchy where the monarch has considerable political power

Charmaine
11 May 2017

Tonga is not the last Pacific monarchy. The Wallis and Futuna Islands consists of three monarchies, Uvea, Sigave and Alo also, Tuvalu is a monarchy as is New Zealand.