- 1954-01-25 — Stanley P. Bolton, Jr. arrived in Nuku'alofa, on Tongatapu Island, from Australia and was named a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh for Tonga Islands. [BW13:456, BWNS286]
- 1954-07-12 — Dudley Moore Blakely, an artist, sculptor and designer, and his wife, Elsa ('Judy'), British citizens living in Maine, arrived on Tongatapu and were named Knights of Bahá'u'lláh for Tonga Islands. [BW13:456] They shared the honour with Dr. Stanley Bolton. [BWNS286]
- 1954-11-20 —
The first person to become a Bahá'í in Tonga, Harry Terepo, born in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, enrolled.
- He was a teacher, interpreter and guide living in Ohonua on the island of Eua.
- 1955-03-04 — The first Tongan to become a Bahá'í in Tonga, Tevita Ngalo'afe, enrolled.
- 1958-04-21 — The first local spiritual assembly in the Kingdom of Tonga was formed at Nuku'alofa.
- 1959-04-21 —
The Regional Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific Islands was formed with its seat in Suva, Fiji. [BN No 267 MY 1953 P1]
- Its area of jurisdiction comprised of ten island groups: Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Loyalty Islands, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Marshall Islands, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, and Tonga. [BW13:308]
- For the letter of the Custodians to the national convention see MC151–5.
- In 1963 the Universal House of Justice announced that the Assembly was to be dissolved and succeeded by a National Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific Ocean, and a National Spiritual Assembly of the South West Pacific Ocean, with the new Assemblies being formed the following year.
- 1964-04-21 — The Regional Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific Islands was dissolved and the territory divided into two National Spiritual Assembly areas, South West Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. The National Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific Ocean was formed with its seat in Suva comprising the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Nauru Island, Fiji, Western Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga and Cook Islands. [BW14p99]
- 1966-09-11 —
The rescue of six Tongan boys from the uninhabited island of 'Ata by Peter Warner and his crew on his yacht the Just David. The boys, all students at St Andrew's College, had stolen a 25 foot whaling boat and, on their first night at sea, had lost the sails and the rudder in a storm. They lost the little food they had carried as well. They were adrift for 8 days without water before reaching the island in June 1965. By the time Warner arrived, the boys had set up a commune with a food garden, hollowed-out trees to store rainwater, a gymnasium, badminton court, chicken enclosures. and a permanent fire. [Wikipedia]
- This documentary was made in 1966 shortly after the rescue.
- Here is Peter Warner's own story of the rescue.
- A documentary has been made of the experience. Here is the trailer.
- In 1974 Peter Warner was once more in the right spot at the right time, when he rescued a shipwrecked sailing crew on Middleton Reef in the Tasman Sea, with the help of Sione Filipe Totau, one of the Tongans he had rescued earlier.
- Mr Warner lived in Tonga for thirty years where he became a Bahá'í and help found Ocean of Light International School. His time there was documented in his autobiography called Ocean of Light: 30 Years in Tonga and the Pacific. In the 1990s he moved to the Northern Rivers of NSW, and become a noted macadamia farmer and tree manager near Lismore, before settling in Ballina. This period of his life was covered in his autobiography Twilight of the Dawn.
- He died on the 13th of April 2021 at the age of 90 after his boat capsized during an attempted crossing of the Ballina Bar in rough conditions.
[The Echo]
- 1985-04-21 —
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Cook Islands was formed with its seat in Rarotonga. It was formerly in a union with Tonga and so this left the formation of the National Spiritual Assembly of Tonga with its seat in The National Spiritual Assembly of Tonga and the Cook Islands was formed with its seat in Nuku'alofa. [BW15:275]. [BW19:62, 168]
- French Polynesia, which had been under the direction of the National Spiritual Assembly of New Caledonia was transferred to the newly-elected National Assembly of the Cook Islands.
- 1992-07-27 — The National Spiritual Assembly of Tonga broadcasted the first of its weekly 30-minute television programmes. [BINS281:5]
- 1996-03-03 — The establishment of the Ocean of Light School in Tonga. [OoL Website, BWNS195; Bahaipedia]
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