Tonga's choice [1]
Saturday, September 26, 1998 - 12:00. Updated on Sunday, December 6, 2015 - 16:23.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 13, no. 3, October 1998.
Mr Justice Gordon Ward, who was Chief Justice for Tonga 1992-1995 will return as Chief Justice starting on November 16.
He will take over from Chief Justice Jack Lewis whose four and half year term, first as Puisne Judge and later as the Chief Justice ended on September 1.
When Mr Justice Ward left Tonga in 1995, it also concluded a 90-year working relationship between Tonga and the United Kingdom, during which the British Government supplemented the salaries of British Supreme Court judges. Since 1995 New Zealand and Australia have provided the judges and supplemented their salaries.
Siaosi ‘Aho, the Secretary for the Ministry of Justice said that the reappointment did not mean a revival of the British Supplementary scheme, “but a gallant move by Tonga to achieve its long standing objective of localising the post.” He said that the one small step that Tonga had taken was to pay the full salary of the Chief Justice of their own choice. The former practice had been that Supreme Court judges were selected from the country which supplemented their salaries. “The localising of the positions of Supreme Court judges and a Chief Justice, is not just a matter of finding the right person, but we should also be able to pay the salaries they deserve,” said Siaosi.