Sione Tupou Mateialona/en
With the declaration of the British protectorate over Tonga Mateialona became the new prime ministers. Luckily he had a good collaboration with the British consul, Hamilton Hunter.
In 1909 a cooperative trading society known as the Tonga maʻa Tonga Kautaha was established, mainly to sell copra, which was a great success, because it gave much more profit to the Tongan participants than any dealing of them with foreign traders, who put most of the profits in their own pockets. Of course they did not like that and started courtcases, so that soon the kautaha had become a political issue. King Tupou was manoeuvred to one side, for the Tongans. The British to the other, to the bad guys. And Mateialona, still friend with them, therefore fell. He resigned in May 1912, supposedly retiring, although he may have remained on as caretaker until September that year. Tēvita Polutele Kaho, the chief of police would succeed him.
Later he became governor of Haʻapai, in 1918, one of the first appointments by the new queen [[Sālote Tupou III].
Although Mateialona was a grandson of Tupou I, he had not really a chiefly rank, as his father ʻIsileli Tupou had been declared illegitimate by the great man, and his mother was no great name either. Yet, with the house of Tupou running thin at the time, he was still a possible candidate for succession to the throne. In 1921 Sālote rewarded his support towards her by elevating him to a noble with the title Tupoutoʻa, making him essentially the crown prince.
- I.C. Campbell; Island kingdom; Canterbury press, 2001
