14 Local News Thursday October 20, 2016
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I’m not getting older, I’m just becoming a classic
The People You Meet... with Fran Rabbitts POTTSVILLE resident Peter Warner recently published a book with the title Oceans of Light, that chronicles 30-years of his life in Tonga and the close friendship he developed with the King of Tonga, George Tupou V (19482012). Originally from Sydney, Peter’s family business, Astor Radios, was a household name when he was a young boy. He was being primed to one day take over the business, but that day never came, instead at the age of 17 he ran away to sea on a Swedish freighter and worked and studied to gain his qualifications as a Master Mariner on coastal shipping. He then bought and worked on his own fishing boat in the Pacific area with plans to expand this business. By this time, he had married his wife Justine and they decided that she would remain in Sydney and oversee the children’s education and manage the fishing business while Peter worked the business overseas.
King’s blessing inspires amazing new book Tonga with its 177 island’s territorial waters is abundant with fish. Always searching for new fishing grounds, Peter visited Tongan waters and noticed many fishing boats from as far as Korea and Japan fishing without permission in Tongan waters. Two hundred miles south of the capital of Tonga lies the uninhabited volcanic island of Ata and on one trip Peter noticed a burnt area on the green slope and movement on the cliff top. The crew investigated and were astonished to find six shipwrecked Tongan schoolboys who had disappeared on a small boat two years earlier. They had been believed dead and mourned by the nation. The subsequent rescue of the castaways began a friendship with the King of Tonga who in gratitude granted Peter the rights to fish Tonga’s territorial waters. The decision still benefits the nation to this day as Peter, a fisherman and entrepreneur established a fishing export business with benefits which flowed on to the areas of employment, health services, education and tourism. A lifelong friendship began between the King of Tonga, Peter and the Warner family who have a great love and affection for Tongan people. Peter was asked what drew him to Tonga and kept him there, “I like the Tongans’
adventurous temperament and their lifestyle,” he said. “They delight in absorbing new ways to enhance their lives and it gave me a great sense of satisfaction to introduce new ways of improving both cultural and modern methods of fishing, farming, and trading. “Through this they helped themselves and this enhanced their feelings of selfesteem.” Later the King of Tonga said to Peter: “The Tongans today, whether we like it or not, find ourselves in a fast changing world but we have demonstrated our ability to adjust. “We have to be more like pussy cats -
when you throw a cat into the air it always lands on its feet.” Peter said his advice to his friend the King, if he were alive today, would be “steady as you go in steering the ship of state.” “As the population becomes more educated, your majesty can slowly give them more say in Government and mentor them towards democracy to avoid corruption, coups, and riots that have occurred in neighbouring countries in the Pacific,” Peter said. Peter’s book makes good reading and he is still in contact with some of the boys he rescued those many years ago.
Peter Warner with a guitar made by the stranded teenagers(inset) and his ship Alta.
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