Baker was born in London, England, to Jane (née Woolmer) and George Baker. He arrived in Melbourne in 1852 during the Victorian gold rush, as a stowaway. He subsequently worked on the goldfields as a farmhand, miner and apothecary's assistant. In 1855, Baker became a teacher at a Wesleyan school in Castlemaine. He married Elizabeth Powell in 1859.[2]
Tonga
In 1860, Baker was ordained as a Wesleyan minister and went to Tonga as a missionary. He became head of the mission and was involved in the councils of King George Tupou I, who made him his prime minister in 1880. A disagreement arose with the Wesleyan authorities at Sydney in 1879, and Baker founded an independent body under the title of the "Free Church of Tonga". Some of the natives, however, were loyal to their original church and much strong feeling was aroused, which resulted with an attempt to shoot Baker in 1887. He escaped unhurt, but his son and daughter were both wounded. Six Tongans were executed for this crime,[1] and many were deported to other islands. In 1888, the Rev. George Brown visited Tonga to inquire into the position and to endeavour to heal the breach between the two churches. He did not succeed, and his reports show that Baker was using his power to the disadvantage of those who were not adherents of the Free Church. In 1890, Sir John Bates Thurston visited Tonga and deported Baker at short notice to Auckland for being 'prejudicial to the peace and good order of the Western Pacific', claiming an authority over all British subjects in the Pacific.
Assassination attempts
In late 1886, a group of chiefs from Muʻa – led by Siaosi Tukuʻaho – hatched a plan to arrest Baker and deport him to Fiji, likely with the support of Basil Thomson.[3] This subsequently evolved into an assassination plot, with four outlaws being sheltered in Muʻa volunteering their services. The first attempt was made on Christmas Eve, when Lavuso – a Muʻa supporter and staff member of Tupou College – and another man went to Baker's house intending to club him to death, but were distracted by the presence of a group of schoolchildren. A second attempt was made a week later on New Year's Eve, with the assailants lying in wait for Baker to attend a service at the king's chapel but ultimately aborting the attempt.[4]
On 12 January 1887, the four outlaws and Tōpui, the son of a Muʻa chief, arrived in Nukuʻalofa and hid along Beach Road near Baker's house. With no opportunity arising to ambush Baker, they stayed with Lavuso at Tupou College before returning to Beach Road the following evening.[4] Around 7:30 pm, Baker went out for an evening drive in his horse and buggy, taking his son Shirley Jr. and daughter Beatrice. The assassins fired upon the buggy, hitting Shirley Jr. in the shoulder and Beatrice in the thigh, as well as wounding the horse. Beatrice also received a spinal injury after falling out of the buggy.[5]
King Tupou regarded the shooting as an act of rebellion and called on the chiefs of Tongatapu to assemble armed forces for an expedition against the Muʻa conspirators.[6] A group of Tupou's supporters ransacked Tōpui's village of Holonga, with the Muʻa chiefs ultimately convincing Tōpui to give himself up rather than confront the government forces. The group of outlaws also surrendered, and over a dozen co-conspirators were arrested, imprisoned and charged with treason.[7] On 31 January, ten of the leading conspirators, including Tōpui, were found guilty and sentenced to death, while four others who had turned King's evidence were pardoned or given light sentences.[8]
Baker reportedly intended for the ten death sentences to be commuted to life imprisonment, but was over-ruled by Tupou who ordered the immediate execution of six men without Baker's knowledge. The condemned men were taken in leg irons to the small islet of Malinoa, along with 50 soldiers, and executed by firing squad.[8] Baker subsequently convinced Tupou to postpone the executions of the four remaining men, who were instead banished from Tonga.[9] Tupou also ordered or sanctioned a number of punitive expeditions against individuals associated with the conspirators, with at least twenty villages being looted and a number of assaults carried out.[10]
Later life
After his deportation, Baker visited the United States and attempted to lobby the American government to intervene in Tonga on his behalf. However, his efforts were hindered by publication in November 1890 of a report by Basil Thomson into Tonga's finances, which showed a number of irregularities in the Treasury Department and that Baker had used government funds to pay for groceries, alcohol and other personal expenses. Baker subsequently settled in Auckland where he "owned a large house in a select part of the town" and reportedly had "extensive investments".[11] However, by the mid-1890s he was "reduced to comparative penury" by a nationwide economic depression.[12]
In February 1897, Baker returned to Tonga and sought appointment as government medical officer. His application was refused following the interference of British officials. He made a further visit in October 1897, unsuccessfully applying for appointment as a Free Church minister, before returning to Tonga permanently in May 1898. He settled in Haʻapai where he had built a small house, living with his three unmarried daughters who opened a school. He supplemented the family income by dispensing medicines.[12]
At a Free Church conference in Vavaʻu in August 1898, Baker unsuccessfully sought back-payment from the church of £100 per annum plus ten percent interest. He subsequently resigned his membership in the Free Church and inaugurated the Siasi a Vikia ("Queen Victoria's Church") in Haʻapai, which claimed an Anglican affiliation. In November 1898 he returned to Tongatapu and established a branch of his new church. The following year, Siaosi Tukuʻaho and his family briefly affiliated with Baker as a protest against the Free Church.[12] However, Baker was soon publicly denounced by Tupou's successor George Tupou II after it was discovered that he had no formal affiliation with the Church of England, and the Tongatapu congregation rejected his leadership in favour of Alfred Willis, the former Anglican bishop of Hawaii.[13]
Baker spent his final years in Haʻapai, dying of a heart attack on 16 November 1903. According to local tradition he was "found dead with the tongue protruding, by which the Tongans knew that the devil had got him at the end".[14] His grave and monument still stand as a tourist attraction in Pangai on Lifuka, Haʻapai.[15]
Legacy and evaluation
Baker's side of the case may be found in Mennell's Dictionary of Australasian Biography, published in 1892. An opposing view is in Basil Thomson's The Diversions of a Prime Minister, pp. 3 to 25. R. L. Stevenson, who called Baker "the defamed and much-accused man of Tonga" found him "highly interesting to speak to" (Vailima Letters, p. 41).
