From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 4, January 2001.

Bravo! for the gallant initiative of Masima Sefesi ‘Akau‘ola, the District Officer of Hihifo, Tongatapu, and  Manu Tangi, the District Officer of Niuatoputapu, and to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet for their approval of a regulation to stop pigs from digging up the towns and villages in these districts.

This is a wonderful example of how District Officers may make regulations, and how such regulations can become law if sanctioned by Cabinet and signed by the Prime Minister.

The issue of free-roaming pigs has been thrashed out during the past few years. The apparent solution has been that humans have to fence themselves in, while allowing their dear pigs to roam freely throughout the towns and villages digging up gardens, turning grass into mud, breaking water pipes and fences, and leaving droppings all over the place.

No one really knows how this slovenly situation became so widespread, because before the late 1970s no pigs were to be seen roaming about in the main centres of Nuku‘alofa, Neiafu and Pangai. In the villages it used to be common practice that pigs were kept in pens to make sure that they did not dig up gardens. But by the early 1980s pigs had invaded the towns and in Nuku‘alofa they were at Mala‘e Pangai and on the seafront, and in Neiafu sows suckled their piglets in the main street.

We hope that the initiative of Masima and Manu will catch on and that every district in Tonga will adopt similar regulations. We might expect progress to start from the urban centres and spread to the rural areas but, in this instance, progressive ideas are being initiated in the rural areas, and we can only hope that they will spread to the piggy urban centres.