The Kermadec islands lie about 3o° S., and 178° W., and about 600 m. north-north-east of New Zealand. The total area is about I 5 sq.m. The largest island of the group is Raoul or Sunday island, 20 m. in circumference and 1,60o ft. high and thickly wooded. Macaulay island is 3 m. in circuit. The flora and fauna are related to those of New Zealand. The islands were named from D'En trecasteaux's Captain, Huon Kermadec, in 1791. They were an nexed by New Zealand in 1887, and are now uninhabited.
The Tongan Archipelago, or as Captain Cook named them "the Friendly islands," consists of at least 1 oo islands and islets, be tween parallels 15° and 231' S., and meridian 173° and 177° W. These islands, lying south-east from the Fijian group, resemble irregularly scattered links of a broken chain, the main axis of which extends for some 175 m. This chain is divisible into three main groups, the Vavau islands the northernmost, the Haapai islands, and the Tongatabu group—with which may be included Eua—the southernmost. The total area of the group is about 385 sq.m. Pop. (1932) 28,381 Tongans, 264 Pacific islanders, 412 Europeans and 397 half-castes.
It was the island of Tongatabu, discovered by Tasman in and by him named Amsterdam island, which at the beginning of the 19th century became the starting-off point from which the sandalwood traders reached the then still hardly known Fijian islands, a fact to which it is due that the name Tonga (the first syllables of Tongatabu) has passed into use for the whole archi pelago—for which the natives themselves seem to have had no one name. (For history of Tonga, see separate article.) Even the main islands of the groups, Tongatabu and Vavau, are small, the former measuring about 25 m. by 1 o and nowhere rising to a height of more than 6o ft., and Vavau measuring some 9 m. in length and 62 in breadth. Vavau, however, has cliffs rising to 600 ft. on its northern sides.
Coral, present throughout the group, is more especially so in some of the smaller islands of the chain, e.g., in the Haapai group; but even here volcanic formation is still very evident, and in some cases still active; Tofua, rising to 2,846 ft., Late, 1,800 ft., and Kao, 3,020 ft. are still active cones.
Most of the Tonga islands, however, are level, averaging 4o ft. high and rising to 600 ft.; their sides are generally steep. The sur face is covered with a rich mould unusual in coral islands, mixed towards the sea with sand, and having a substratum of red or blue clay. The soil is thus very productive, although water is scarce and bad. Barrier reefs are rare; fringing reefs are numerous, except on the east side, which is nearly free, and there are many small isolated reefs and volcanic banks among the islands. If the reefs impede navigation, they form some good harbours ; the best of these harbours is that of Vavau, the only defect of which is that the entrance is somewhat narrow and tortuous. Fairly good harbourage is also to be found off the north of Tongatabu.
The climate is dry and cool compared with that of Samoa and Fiji. There are frequent alterations of temperature, which aver ages 75° to 77°, though considerably higher in the wet season. Cool south-east trade winds blow, sometimes with great violence, from April to December. During the rest of the year the winds are from north-west and north, with occasional hurricanes. The average rainfall for the year is about 8o inches. The vegetation is somewhat similar to that of Fiji, but less luxuriant; it was the absence in the Tonga islands of timber trees large enough for the necessary boat-building that led to expeditions by the Polynesian Tongan folk to the distant and almost unknown islands where dwelt the fierce Melanesians of "Viti." Ferns, mosses, orchids, aroids and other plants of moist tropical forests are naturally, also much less abundant in the Tongan than in the Fijian islands. As a consequence of these conditions, the landscape in the Tongan islands is less beautiful than that seen either in the Fijian group to the west or in the Samoan group in the east.
The only indigenous land mammals are a small rat and a large fruit-eating bat, which last named occurs in extraordinary num bers. Birds of prey are very few, but other genera of avifauna are fairly numerous. There are snakes and a few lizards but no frogs or toads. The marine fauna is, as usual in the islands, much more abundantly represented.
Northward and eastward from Vavau are the two very isolated volcanic islands of Nivatombutombu (or Keppel island) and Tafahi (or Boscawen island) which, politically at least, are reck oned as part of the Friendly group. Both, despite their inaccessi bility, are inhabited by natives and now by a few Europeans, and from both trade is done in copra derived from the very numerous coconut palms.
The islands became a British protectorate under native rule in 1900, and in 19o5 the financial administration came under British control. The native sovereign is assisted by a legislative assembly which meets annually. It has 21 members, seven nobles, seven representatives of the people (elected) and the seven minis ters of the Crown. The elections are held every three years. The capital of the group is Nukualofa. The natives are Christians and the Wesleyan Free Church of Tonga, the Free Church, and the Roman Catholics claim the majority of the inhabitants. The natives have free education and medical attendance. There were 105 public primary schools in 1924. There is also a Tonga College (161 students in 1924).
Copra is the chief export (23,758 tons in 1925). Imports in clude flour, timber, sugar, meats, drapery, hardware, foods, etc., while a certain amount of live-stock figures among the exports. Most of the trade is with Britain, Australia, America and New Zealand. There is a wireless station at Nukualofa and a substation at Vavau.