A NOTED MISSIONARY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 139, 18 July 1914, Page 10

A NOTED MISSIONARY.

WELCOME TO DAN CRAWFORD|

There was a large gathering in the City Council Chambers this morning to give a public welcome to the missionary and African explorer, Mr Dan Crawford, who is at present giving a series of lectures throughout New Zealand. The deputy-Mayor, Mr H. B. Sorensen, in welcoming Mr Crawford, said he was a master-builder who in Africa had built many houses, many roads, and the characters of many men, and called upon the Rev. H. Johnson as a personal friend of the missionary explorer, having known him in Africa, to introduce him to the gathering.

The Rev. Mr Johnson said that in introducing Mr Crawford he was placed in a unique position in introducing an almost unique personality to a people who knew him only by reputation. The speaker's knowledge of the man, however, was not gained from newspapers or even from Mr Crawford's book, but was personal knowledge, since, during his ten years' residence on the banks of Lake Tanganyeka they were "neighbours"—that is, they lived about ten days' march from each other, and were frequent visitors at each other's cottages. Mr Crawford's work was not merely platform work, for to •all the missionaries in Africa, whatever their creed, he was recognised, next to Livingstone, as one of the most remarkable pioneers in African exploration. Mr Crawford said he found it einbarassing after being cut' off for a quarter of a century, to come back to civilisation, and he proceeded to demonstrate that Central Africa was his address. He had gone to the Livingstone country years ago to take up the banner that had fallen from the dead leader's hand, and now, comings back to civilisation after 23 years' work in the heart of Africa, he could say that he would rather work 23 years than talk for 23 minutes. He had come back to 3ee his first motor ear, his first elevator —all the supposed conveniences of civilisation, but all these, supposed conveniences added little to life, for most people in civilisation did not live, they merely existed. There was a danger of going back in all that was essential to real life through the very complexity of the trappings of civilisation, for the further west went the nearer one was to the east.

Mr Crawford went on to speak of his philogical , work amongst the natives with which he had surprised the pedantic dons of Oxford, and of the meteoric explorers who rushed through Africa and then described it. One could not get at the back of the native mind by such means —the only way was to. live amongst the people a&d be patient, for the cannibal was a time Tory at heart, distrustful of innovation and hard to move from his accustomed ways. He described how he had carried out a sort of town-planning scheme in Central Africa, and had made wide roads along which it was safe to travel, replacing the narrow tracks through the thirteenfoot grass wherein lions lurked to seize the passing native. His address, which was vehement and forceful, was listened to attentively throughout, and at the conclusion a hiearty vote of thanks, proposed by Mr Sorensen, was carried by acclamation. On Sunday afternoon, at 3 o'clock, a men's meeting, at which Mr J. I. Royds will preside, will be held in the Choral Biall, and a mass meeting at night at 8 o'clock* The doors will not be opened before that hour. Mr H. Holland, Mayor, will preside at the,latter meeting.