FRENCHMAN RETALIATES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 17, 20 January 1914, Page 5

FRENCHMAN RETALIATES.

AFFAIRS IN NEW HEBRIDES. MISSIONARIES ATTACKED. SYDNEY, January 19. ". The Presbyterian missionaries in the New Hebrides are hotly attacked by M. R. LaiMsel in "La Fiance Australie/ , Noumea. He cays that to ruin the French colonisation, and by every possible means to remain the sole masters of the Archipelago, is the aim of the . heads of the Presbyterian movement. The Rev. Mr Gillon and the Rev. Mr. Pafcon— theiT efforts having failed miserably in. the. islands - before- the- firmness of the. colonists and the growing contempt of the natives—now try to "make their cause a national one. The Australian people are assisting, qnd the. odd. and unexpected spectacle is presented of a nation in the process of formation, which has not succeeded in colonising its own territory,, crying' . noisily for the annexation ,o. : , a few islands, -without- taking the opinion of the colonists installed there. to the eulogy by Mr Glyn (Minister for External Affairs) on the Presbyterian missionaries, M. Laussel eaye the Presbyterians' religion is only; a means for gaining the confidence and respect, and—above all—the natives' money. For 60 years they have reguBirly brought the New Hebrides into contempt for justice and morality. Their excesses are born of the indignant protests that the colonists are reduced to slavery, the schools dispossessed of all their property, and the unhappy Kanaka obliged to work for a "master he'detests and fear's.' The missionaries, M. Laussel declares, are well paid, comfortably housed, and vlsited.'"regula.rly by tK'e". Vessels of Messrs. . Burns and Philp. The Presbyterians should be able to do useful and durable .w.ork. in..the Southern group, where the sole masters one finds are' only misery and ruin, and the mortality umong the Kanakas is frightful. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic missionaries have gained the esteem and '.affection of both colonists. and natives. '