IN MELANESIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 73, 27 March 1940, Page 14

IN MELANESIA.

MEDICAL WORK.

TREATMENT OF LEPERS. t MORE MONET REQUIRED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) TIMARU, Tuesday. An interesting account of the work of the Melanesian Mission, especially on its medical side, was given to members of St. Mary's Missionary Guild by Sister Phyllis Talbot, who is at present on furlough.

The Diocese of Melanesia, she said, comprised a long chp.in of islands from the New Hebrides in the south to the mandated territory of New Guinea in the far north-west. There were hundreds of these islands, nearly all of which were inhabited and each of which had a different language. The language problem to the missionary was a very real one, and the Mission Press found it necessary to print books in nearly 30 different languages.

In spite of the difficulties, education had been well established throughout the diocese, and there were a large number of native village day schools, in which the teaching was done by trained native teachers. Each village also had its small church, in which the daily services were undertaken by a native teacher, or, in some cases, by a native priest.

From these village schools boys and girls were selected for further education in the boarding schools, where white principals had charge and were helped by native teachers. The more promising o'f the boys passed on to training colleges, becoming teachers and "brothers," while some eventually received further training and became priests. In all the schools attention was given to the physical as well as the mental and spiritual development of the pupils. All were encouraged to practise their native handicrafts. The Medical Mission. The large amount of sickness on the islands made the medical missionary indispensable. The centre for the medical work was the fine Hospital of the Epiphany, at Fauabu, in the Solomon Islands, which had its own electric light plant and where there was a modern operating theatre. This hospital was under the charge of a New Zealander, Dr. Thomson.

The medical work in other centres was being carried on under great difficulties. On Ugi Island, in the Solomons, there were 30 patients with only one nurse to care for them. At Lolowai, in the New Hebrides, Miss Cunnold, of Auckland, with the assistance of two native girls and two boys, looked after a hospital of 36 beds. The hospital on the island of Raga had recently been destroyed in a hurricane and had not been rebuilt, but the nurse stationed there, Mrs. Francis, had remained on the island, carrying on her work by means of a dispensary.

Very encouraging results had followed the treatment of leprosy, Miss Talbot said. The number of lepers on Malaita alone was estimated at 600 among a population of 40,000, and the disease was by no means confined to Malaita. Leprosy could be divided into two types, infectious and non-infectious. At present the mission was able to treat only the non-infectious type, but when further assistance was forthcoming it was hoped to give full treatment to the infectious lepers also. At the leper colony at Fauabu there were 38 lepers. The mission had received sufficient money to build huts for the accommodation of 160 lepers, but it did not have the money to maintain them. The cost of keeping and treating a leper was £10 a year, and the cure was slow, usually taking more than two years, although the first leper to be discharged from the colony had required only 18 months of treatment. Home in the Scrub. The life of the patient whose leprosy was infectious was a sad one. Separated from his village and family, he found a home in the scrub on the outskirts of the village. Once a week he would come to the dispensary to receive injections, and he would be given sufficient medicine quinine to last until his next visit. No denominational distinction was made by the mission whose services were open j for all. One of the dispensaries had been given to the mission by the Empire i Leprosy Relief Association, and this j association also supplied free of charge the medicine for the injections. When.: funds became available more would be done for the infectious leper. It was hoped that the Government would soon give assistance in this direction, because the work was most promising, and the spread of the disease among the. natives had already been checked. The Native Brothers. The success of the Mission's work, said Miss Talbot, was to a large extent due to the pioneering activities of the native "Brothers." There were now 150 "Brothers" who had volunteered to adventure into the heathen bush districts and to try to win a footing for white and native teachers to follow. In the last 15 years much new territory had been opened up in this way. The "Brothers" received no payment, and volunteered to find their own food in the villages to which they went. Sometimes they found this difficult, and some had even died of starvation. The "Brothers" were primarily evangelists and teachers, but it was often necessary for them to undertake medical work also in the villages where they taught. In order to give them medical experience it was proposed that, as part of their training, a number of them should receive experience in the wards of the hospitals.