BISHOP-ELECT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 96, 24 April 1928, Page 12

BISHOP-ELECT.

TO WORK IN NEW GUINEA.

CANON WILTON ARRIVES

WILL ion; SOLOMONS CKOI'P,

I or t lie purpose of joining the Southern Cross on a tour of the Melanesia.!) Mis-

sion area. pr:or to his consecration as second assistant bishop of Melanesia, the Rev. Canon Wiilott. of Bathurst, New South Wales, arrived by the Marama this morning t lie visitor was •wed by ?!::•• general secretary of me mission. Ma jor H. S. Robinson, and the Rev. li. E. Cartridge, recently front England, who will work in association with Canon Wilton in New Guinea, where tresh ground is to be broken by the Church of England.

Canon Wilton will be the guest of Archbishop Aven 11 during his stay in Auckland. The General Synod of New Zealand, now sitting in Wellington, has passed the necessary resolution allowing the consecration of Canon Wilton to take place in Australia. During the period which will elapse between his appointment and consecration, the sailing of the mission yacht Southern Cross all'ords an excellent opportunity for Canon Wilton to tour the field and see the whole of the work in the diocese, which extends over ah area of 2000 miles in the Solomons.

The mandated territory of New (iiiinea, which includes over 1,000.000 smiare miles of land and sea. will be Canon Wilton's domain. In that area Mota. the universal language of the Melanesian Mission, is rot spoken, so that the work will be carried on under even greater difficulties than in the Solomons. The Rev. F. B. Bishop. who ministers to the spiritual needs of some T>oo EuroTH'Hns at Kabul, and the Rev. Mr. Cartridge., will be the only priests assisting Canon Wilton when the new work commences. Mr. Cartridge will be stationed at Gasinata, hours' sail from the assistant bishop's headquarters at Rahul.

Many of the natives in New Guinea have never heard the Gospel story, and they will receive the sacraments for the first time when the pioneer assistant bishop and Mr. Cartridge go among them. The difficulties of the missionaries will be realised when it is stated that there is no translation of the New Testament, the Prayer Book, or the Catechism which natives of New Guinea can understand. Fifteen different dialects are spoken, and the missionaries expect that they will carry on the bulk of their teaching in "pidgin." Mr. Cartridge will probably be furnished with a schooner, so as to be able to get about his far-flung "parish" more easily. Ho first met Canon Wilton this-morning.

"I am in mufti, as far as possible, and prefer that I should be allowed to pass through Auckland with as little publicity as possible," said Canon Wilton this morning when approached by a Pressman. Canon Wilton conveys a sense of spiritual strength and calm. In the diocese of Bathurst he has been an activt associate of the lit. Rev. Dr. Long, who visited New Zealand at the time of the ( hureli Congress.' On greeting the Rev. Mr. Carridsre from the deck of the M m iimn. Canon Wilton evinced a keen iiud sympathetic interest, in the young hnglish priest who is to be his right hand man in the wide and lonely places of the Pacific.