Tongans

Fifty six passengers were on the flight from Nadi while there were six more from Tarawa, accompanying the body of a deceased citizen.

Senior government official Paula Ma'u told Matangi Tonga the Fiji flight was commercial while the Kiribati plane had been chartered by the Mormon church.

The passengers are staying at the Tanoa Hotel for 14 days of quarantine.

All passengers had tested negative for Covid-19 before boarding the flights.

They will be tested again on the 14th day of quarantine and then asked to self-isolate in their homes for another week.

The Minister said, the 57 passengers who arrived from Fiji two weeks ago had been quarantined for 14-days at Tanoa Hotel, and their final tests came back negative. They were all released to go home.

They are being advised to quarantine at home for a further seven-days as an extra precaution.

“We are thankful that Tonga remains COVID-19 free. Today after 14-days of quarantine, they were all negative,” she said.

Among the evacuees are four students and 51 athletes and officials.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said the he students are currently on quarantine in New Zealand are in good health and are well supported by the New Zealand Government.

“The 4 Tongans were among other Pacific Islander students who opted to leave China and were safely transported to New Zealand for required quarantine before they can return to Tonga.”

The government has asked New Zealand and Australian governments to help quarantined the returrnees in their countries despite the fact these Tongans do not hold arrival permits into their countries.

According to Kaniva News reports, the Tongan sport teams and students in Wuhan are expected to return home next week or as soon as possible and they will face 14 days quarantine.

Beaufort River Meats plant manager Stu Cruden said six more workers would be arriving at the Kojonup plant after Christmas.

They applied for visas through a placement agency which sourced the work on their behalf after the scheme became available in July.

Under the Pacific Labour Scheme workers from Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu are able to apply for low and semi-skilled employment, for a long as three years, as part of a government bid to fill employment shortages in rural and regional Australia.

The bus was carrying members of a school brass band that was on a four-week fundraising tour from Tonga.

The band was on its way to Gisborne to perform at a church on Christmas Day, when the bus plunged down a steep bank.

Three people were killed and many others were injured.

The crash killed 11-year-old Sione Taumololo and a 33-year-old Talita Fifita.

Leotisia Malakai, 55, died later from her injuries at Waikato Hospital.

The records show registrations of British subjects residing in Tonga from 1874 until 1968.

The University of Auckland's Special Collections department received the records from the British High Commissioner to New Zealand, Jonathan Sinclair.

Special Collections manager Stephen Innes said the records were formerly held in the British Consulate in Nuku'alofa in Tonga.

Mr Innes said the Tongan registers would now be part of the Western Pacific Archives that began the university since 2002.

New footage has emerged of a night of shocking violence as Tongan supporters clashed using weapons and brute force following their team's victory in the much-anticipated league match against Pacific rivals Samoa.

Despite widespread appeals for calm, South Auckland's main road became a battleground bringing traffic to a standstill as scores clad in the Tongan red jersey brawled, some brandishing poles, in a series of violent fracas.

NZ Herald reports the skirmishes - which took place on Otahuhu late on Saturday night - saw victims felled by powerful punches and kicks.

The inquiry heard that some labour-hire contractors were skimming close to $1 million (US$765,000) every month off illegal Malaysian migrant workers.

And some contractors in the Sunraysia district of Victoria others in Bowen, Queensland are placing up to 15 workers in squalid homes and charging them up to $100 a week each, the hearing which is sitting in Mildura, Victoria, was told.

Police have confirmed they have received calls regarding "celebrations'' in parts of Auckland, particularly in Otahuhu, where vehicles decked out in national flags have been lining the streets and beeping horns continuously.

Groups of supporters have also turned out in force on a daily basis.

After Mate Ma'a Tonga's thrilling win against Scotland on Sunday, legions of fans and supporters turned out to the streets of Otahuhu to celebrate.