MELANESIAN MISSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 178, 29 July 1932, Page 5

MELANESIAN MISSION.

NEW CHURCH BUILDING.

CONSTRUCTED IN MELBOURNE.

FATHER'S MEMORIAL TO SOX.

Through the generosity of Mr. A. C. Sage, of Clifton Hill, Melbourne, the Melanesian Mission is to have a new church at Malaita, in the British Solomon Islands. This is now in course of construction in Melbourne. For more than a year a email band of enthusiasts has been hard at work preparing piece by piece the new church and in a few weeks all these separate parts will be sent in two shiploads to the island. The building will be 85ft long and 58ft wide, and a gleaming white cross will stand 50ft high as a landmark to ships far out at sea.

Mr. Sage has devoted thousands of pounds and many months of hard work to giving this church to the Solomons a-s a memorial to his son, the Rev. Charlie ('race Sage, who went from Australia to the South Seas in 1898 and did notable missionary work among the islanders before being accidentally drowned 19 years ago.

In April, 1931, Mr. Sage, who is a wheelright, smith and coachmaker, seti to work in his Clifton Hill factory to build the church. Ho drew up Ins architectural plans, and embodied several novel features of his own invention as a precaution against earthquake. Asbestos roofing was prepared as a measure against fire danger and tropical heat, and the materials of its construction include 40 tons of cement, 10 tone of Macedon |)ine (especially treated to resist white ants), rolled steel girders, hundreds of square feet of asbestos, and a number of iron window fittings. Mrs. Sage, who is more than 80, has helped her husband in hie plans. She has already donated a building, known as the Harriet Elizabeth Sage Memorial Nurses' Home, to the Church Hospital at Fauabu, 12 miles from Sui Malaita. Thie eo*t over £1000. The elderly couple think it unlikely that they will visit the Solomons to eee the fruits of their generosity. They are content in the knowledge that they are helping to consummate the work begun by their son.