MISSION FLAG.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 223, 20 September 1938, Page 10

MISSION FLAG.

ON SOUTHERN CROSS.

PATTESCN ANNIVERSARY. SCHEME TO SUCCOUR VESSEL. To mark the 77th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bishop Patteson, in Melanesia, the. Church of Kupland containing the cross of St. (icorge, with the arms of Melanesia at the top lefthand corner, was flown to-day from the foremost masthead of the Mission ■■teamer Southern Cross. The flajr was a to the Mission from the parish of St. < i«Mirjre's. in the County of Surrey,

As it fluttered in the breeze it was a reminder that the work of the mission goes on in innumerable villages on the tropic isles of the South Seas. But it meant more. St. Ceorge's. Ashstead. in Surrey, is the first parish to undertake, under the new scheme proposed bv the present Bishop of Melanesia, the* support of the Southern Cross for one dav of the year. The daily cost of running the vessel is £10. a day and the day chosen by the English parish is St. fJcorge's Day, April 2."5. Auckland's Immediate Response. An immediate response in Auckland was revealed by an announcement bv the mission authorities today that ' two days had been taken up, one by a group organised by Miss Vera Syers," of Avondale, and the other by an anonymous donor, who had selected January 8 of each year in the name of "Shiela," to be commemorated in perpetuity by annual gifts of £10 to the mission' funds. "There are, it is hoped, few of us who cannot with thanksgiving regard some particular date or dates, associated with some special blessing, as suitable for perpetual remembrance in association with the work of the Southern Cross." said the Rt. Rev. W. H. BaddeJey. Bishop of Melanesia, recently in making the suggestion that the vessel should be maintained bv individual and co-operative effort throughout the Empire. "It is my aim to rid the mission of its heavy debt. Therefore, to enable all who wish to experience a sense of personal activity with the Southern Cross there lias been inaugurated a Log of Perpetual Remembrance, which will rest in the chapel of the vessel, where services are held each morning and evening throughout the year, whether the ship is at sea or in anchorage. Benefactors Remembered. "The log will respose in a casket testifying to the, charity of those who succour the vessel to enable her to speed on with the work of the mission. On each day of the year will be visible the names of those to be remembered especially on that day, and those names will be read at the services, in addition to the daily general thanksgiving for all whose names are written on the pages of the log. Cards will be sent each year to benefactors, giving the ship's location at sea on the dates they have chosen."

It ie thought appropriate that the launching of the new scheme should be associated with the anniversary of the death of Bishop Patterson, who was killed by a blow from a elub, on tlie little island of Kukapii. in the Santa Cruz Group, on September 20. 1871 The mat in which the bishop's hotly was taken away from the island an.l the palm leaves, with five knqjU to represent the number of fatal wound*, are preserved at the cathedral at Siota in the British Solomon Islands.