MEDICAL WORK IN THE ISLANDS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22081, 1 May 1937, Page 21

MEDICAL WORK IN THE ISLANDS

li&birS ASSISTANCE TO 1 7 ADMINISTRATION ( " f ' ' •; • ♦ . account of the assistance given to rnvernment Medical Department <IW Br itish Solomon Islands by '' * Melanesian Mission, is contained " * reDort supplied by the mission s ■" wrhe Press." The Anglican and ' W hurch missions, it is stated, are A oltw en deal of medica i work . '* **"! a „.,r«! a considerable amount of «- "# c °", o ne by the Government Ad- , *or k,S tVnn» the report states, "and ? '. i very fine hospital at Tulagi, '" there ls .* lM ters. But to anyone who ' & hea a nvtning of the Protectorate, it '' kn°fl. nbvious that a vast field re- '-■• && t be served, even after all that 1 n done by a very efficient, and f' *bS Government Medical Departk it is not known to what Pe t tSe Melanesian, and, indeed, J* are assisting the Medi'T »f De Ctoent. We know that the Sk Mists are doing excellent work. -a jghoduB iar d of Malaita which> in vn m davs had a sinister reputation & * Sid bunting and cannibalism, the f *, h lln Mission has a splendid hos--I "KFauabau, on Coleridge. Bay. if PS™ the Great War the mission $ at Maravovo, on the & anf Guadalcanal but when the & hrnke out the medical officer reP nnd no other was to be found. m jijneo a"« the En gi isn committee of the i ,snn advised that a benefactor had t£ % ffhospital in the Solomon Islands, '# !?&£ understood that the gift was M L£nt on the offer of another gift $ 3?iS m 1 928 Dr - L v M -. Ma r 34 2L» beffln the work under extraordif Sy difficult conditions; By Ndvem•l 5?1930 there was a house for the m. SSii-al officer and accommodation for 3R Smi and a great deal of medical H 5 was being done in temporary !$' '"fflto'the hospital is complete with « fc..r wards and an operating theatre, I Hi dispel built by the natives. The ■M Suction work was mainly carried I Kjjr A. H. Fletcher, a young ISjjjnian. who joined the mission in ; Jlrch education :' fc; SYSTEM

I Raining of melanesian I Mr--' NATIVES m <

Village schools, district schools, junior schools, and teachers' training alleges, are maintained by the Melattsiaa Mission in the islands under Ueut. Dr. W. H. Baddeley, Bishop of Melanesia, has given in a statement Mine account of the educational work cl"the mission, both religious and In about 700 villages in "Old Melanejla"—the New Hebrides, Santa Cruz, lie Solomons, and adjacent Islandsthere are village schools. Though these were at one time simply groups being prepared for baptism, they now provide an elementary secular education as well as religious teaching. The district schools are a more recent growth. From central boarding schools many well-taught native boys are sent into the mission field. , From village, district, and preliminary schoolst on the various islands, some of the boys continue to junior schools-one of these being at Vureas (near lolowai), and the other at Muavovo, on the island of Guadal-' canar„Here most of the teaching is dotfa^Sie-white^istafr; A^Tai*ge'p J a'rt:6f is borne by the misslojs though the making of copra helps to reduce the cost. At'Maravovo, English i 3 now the school language. .Certain selected boys proceed from the junior schools to the senior school. at Pawa, Ugi, in the Solomons. The next stage is represented by t the teachers' training colleges at Lolowai and Siota. Most of the men in these colleges are teachers who have given good service'in the villages, but who have had nothing but a village education. The "crown" of the Church's education system is the clergy training college, St. Peter's, on the island of Mala, Here men preparing for ordination come for a two years' period of training. , -.•.-'