The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1890.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 102, 1 May 1890, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1890.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future Iα the distance, And the good that Tβ can do.

When Bishop Selwyn, fired by the evangelising zeal of a St. Paul* set out in the little cutter Undine, to found the Melanesian Mission, we doubt not that the visions of an enthusiast pic. tured in the mirror of his mind a magnificent future. He probably saw an everincreasing band of earnest men, European and Melanesian, setting out from Auckland year by year, to carry the Gospel of peace and righteousness to the people for whose emancipation from the shackles of ignorance and depravity his soul longed. In spirit, he heard ascending from a thousand verdure-clad isles of the Pacific sea, songs of praise to God, while receding, before the purifying tide of Gospel knowledge, were the cruelties of barbarism, the cannibalism, the disregard of human life, the oppression of weaker members, and the whole category of heathen abominations.

In what measure has this felicitous dream been realised? The answer is given in an exceedingly, interesting report on the Melanesian lor the year 1889, Which is published with the "Church Gazette" to-day.- And though the results in Melanesia, as in all things human, fall far short of the ideal, there is very much to be thankful for, much to satisfy those who look upon missionary effort only as a civilising agency.

If the presence of missionaries in the South Sea Islands had done nothing more than a curb the brutalities of "black-bird catching," carried on by white-skinned ruffianswho disgraced the nation to which they belonged, it would have contributed much to the sum total of human happiness, and have justified the effort upon purely humanitarian grounds. But there are few men, even among those who delight to sneer at missions, who can read this report dispassionately without feeling that a noble work has been, and is still being, accomplished by men whose self-sacri-ficing and self-denying lives, judged merely by human ideals, stand out lofty and beautiful as a snow-clad mountain in a plain of desolation, when contrasted with the sordid, contemptible purposes of nine-tenths of their critics.

Ask any old Island trader the character of the aborigines of the Solomon Group a very few years ago, when headhunting was the great sport of the dark skinned warrior chiefs. 11l fared it with that unfortunate crew whose vessel was cast away upon those barbarous islands. What is the position of affairs now? On most of the islands the lives of white men are almost as safe as in a British colony. Reporting upon a recent visit ofinspection through the North Solomons, Mr Bice tells us in this report that he found 24 schools in active work upon Florida alone with an attendance of 1,085 scholars. A thousand native Christians were present at one gathering, while at another Mr Bice addressed eight hundred men. At Ysabel, the chief Soga, addicted within the past few years to headhunting, this year abandoned his old practices, gave up his polygamous habits, and. with,the one wife he has chosen was baptized at his own request by Mr Bice.

Equally encouraging accounts are told of Guadalcanal Bauro, the islands of the Santa Cruz Group, Banks Islands and the New Hebrides. *

The worjc is still carried on upon the liflss laid down by the late Bishop Selwyn, although Norfolk Island is now the head-quarters of the Mission, where native teachers receive their training. At present there are 150 scholars at St. Barnabas'on that island, all the Grpups in whidb the Mission is labouring having been drawn upon in the selection of teachers.

It is difficult to believe that this vast work is being carried on at a cost of about ;£io,ooo a year, The modest total of £1,242 for stipends assures us that whatever other motive leads men of culture to forego the pleasures of civilisation in order to engage in this work, they are not: attracted the ; Ijope of

pecuniary gain. The revered Bishop Patteson, the most distinguished upon the roll of Melanesian martyrs, gave his fortune to the cause, and this now furnishes of the capital employed in the undertaking. His able and devoted successor, who has taken upon himself the arduous task of carrying to fruition the work begun by his father, manifests a spirit of equal liberality. Among the contributions towards the new vessel which is now required to perform the sea services connected with the mission, we observe a donation of by the Bishop and Mrs Selwyn.

It cannot be otherwise than refreshing to every man whose sensibilities are withering under the blast of selfishness, to look away from the petty struggles that occupy nine-tenths of the human family, to the civilising work which is being done in these islands. And those impulses which tend towards higher aims will find some pleasurable gratification in responding to the appeal that is made in the report for a more hearty .interest in the mission, and a more generous support of its objects.