Queen Sālote of Tonga had two sons who survived to adulthood. Her third son, Prince Uiliami Tuku‘aho, died at the age of 16 of dropsy.
Her two surviving sons, Siaosi Tāufaʻāhau Tupoulahi and Sione Ngū Manumataongo, were married in a double wedding. The European-style wedding took place on 10 June 1947.
For Tuʻipelehake, as Prince Sione Ngū was then known, his future wife was Melenaite Tupou Moheofo, who was a great-granddaughter of the last Tu’i Tonga (from a line of Tongan Kings). She was educated at Ravenswood Methodist School for Girls in Sydney. The Crown Prince reportedly spotted Halaevalu Mataʻaho ʻAhomeʻe in 1945 when she was helping to serve food during the centenary celebrations, and he decided that she should be his wife.
A double wedding was organised so that the people wouldn’t be burdened with the cost of two separate weddings. The two couples were married by A.E. McKay, President of the Free Wesleyan Church in the Royal Chapel. They were blessed by Rodger Page and John Burton, President-General of the Methodist Church of Australasia.
Pacific Islands Monthly wrote, “From the royal pew, Queen Sālote watched the proceedings with evident pleasure. After the wedding, some 350 guests were entertained by Her Majesty in palm-covered shelters overlooking the lagoon, before the royal palace. Visitors from overseas included the Maori Princess Te Puea, and representatives of the Fiji and Samoan people. […] Two five-tiered wedding cakes were ceremonially cut. After the formal breakfast, the Queen received her guests on the steps in front of the palace.”1
Two days later, on 12 June, a Tongan-style wedding was held.
“Two days later, the wedding ceremony was repeated in Tongan fashion. The brides wearing feathered garments and wrapped about with fine mats, and the bride-grooms, dressed in tapa decorated with leaves and scented flowers, were helped on to a dais of mats, piled to a height of 6 feet. Presents of mats, tapa, kava roots and pigs were exchanged with full formality; and then the elaborate kava ceremony, which was the key feature of the Tonga wedding, was performed.”2
Queen Sālote was delighted to have daughters at last, and she was especially fond of Melenaite, whom she often took with her, even on extended visits. Her first grandchildren were born the following year as the Crown Prince’s wife, Halaevalu Mataʻaho, gave birth to a son on 4 May 1948, followed by a daughter born to Melenaite on 12 May 1948.
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