MELANESIAN MISSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 37, 13 February 1929, Page 9

MELANESIAN MISSION.

NEW MUSEUM OPENED PIONEERS IN THE FIELD.

Rescued from oblivion and decay, the old stone mission building at Mission Bay, so intimately connected with l'ishop Patterson and other pioneers in Melanesia, has been turned into a museum for curios and relics connected with the mission since its foundation. Archbishop Averill performed the opening ceremony. Among the guests was Major-General Richardson, who was Administrator at Samoa for several years. He paid a tribute to the work of missionaries in the islands. Personally lit thought the great hope for the native races of the Pacific Islands lay in a sound system of practical education, a system that would enable them to face modern conditions, and their changed environment. The museum contains a largo number of valuable articles from the islands where the mission works, notably the Solomons and the Xew Hebrides. Every year the genuine native-made articles are becoming more rare, and the intrinsic value of the collection is considerable. Sonic of the relics, more particularly the personal ones of men like Patterson, have a deeper inerest for the friends of the mission. Now that these things have been properly housed, and will be open to the public, interest in the mission should be stimulated.