The bulkier the monarch, the greater his subjects' blessings and prosperity. This has been the comfortable philosophy of the 77,000 Polynesian islanders of Tonga, a British protectorate 850 miles northeast of New Zealand. The stately figure of their beloved Queen Salote (6 ft. 3 in., 280 Ibs.) was widely admired during Queen Elizabeth's coronation procession in London in 1953, when Salote rode proudly erect in the pouring rain without benefit of hat or umbrella; Tongans do not cover themselves in the presence of superiors. Salote died in 1965. Last week her son,...
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