FROM MELANESIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 204, 29 August 1929, Page 10

FROM MELANESIA.

RETURN OF MISSIONARIES. INFANTILE PARALYSIS IN SOLOMONS. SOUTHERN CROSS IN GOOD TRIM. From the isolation of island life in the New Hebrides and the Solomons, three members of the Mdanesian Mission staff reached New Zealand early this afternoon in the mission schooner Southern Cross. Notwithstanding the sunshine in which people of Auckland have been basking to-day, the visitors remarked that they had evidently come into chilly weather. They are used to conditions near the equator.

The Rev. G. E. F. Leggatt hae returned to Auckland, after a year of absence, on sick leave. He comeg from Banks Island, in the New Hebrides, as also does the Rev. A. Buchartj who is on furlough. The thii'c! member of the party is M 199 E. Cordell, a trained nurse from Wellington, who for three years has been Oh tho island of Sioata, in the Solomons.

It will be recalled that after her breakdown at Norfolk Island, the Southern Cross returned to Now Zealand for repairs. On her next outward Voyage she visited stations in the New Hebrides, and then went north to the Solomons, leaVing Bishop Molyneux at Sioata. Returning from there.by way of the New Hebrides, the voyage has been pleasant and uneventful.

Captain Burgess reports that the ship is in good going Order, and he expects to get away again for the islands towards the end of September.

Bishop Molyneux is expected to come south to' the New Hebrides in December, taking up his headquarters at Lolowai Bay, where he, hopes to get a ship to take him to England fof the Lambeth Conference next year. The work of the mission is reported to be progressing well in both spheres of action, most especially in connection with schools and hospitals as adjuncts to the spiritual purpose for which the mission primarily exists. Natives trained in the schools in many cases go back to their people and themselves carry on tho work of instruction. In this way knowledge ia spreading through tho Islands, and the high ideals for which the mis* sion stands are being more extensively embraced by the people among whom their lives are east.

About three months ago an outbreak of infantile paralysis occurred in the Solomons. Miss Cordell states that at Sioata there were two deaths, one of a native woman and the other of a child aged ten. There Were not many cases in the Islands, but tho percentage of deaths was fairly high, , "The initial treatment which we are able to give," Miss Cordell said, "is fairly effective, but what we do miss is equipment for after treatment. We wish we might be able to give more in the way of massage and electric treatment."

Reference to the new Melanesian Mission Hospital, which is being established at Fuabu, Malaita, was made by Miss Cordell. Dr. Maybury, an English doetor, and his Wife, Who was a trained nurse, have gone from Sioata to take charge of the hospital. Like all other mission workers on this Widely-spfead field, their lives are full and serviceable.