NINETIETH BIRTHDAY

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26117, 20 May 1950, Page 2

NINETIETH BIRTHDAY

MISS ALICE E. HENDERSON

Miss Alice E. Henderson, missionary emeritus of tje Presbyterian Church of New Zealfnd, will celebrate her ninetieth birthday on Monday. Few in the Dominion have led a more varied and eventful life than Miss Henderson has. and few, if any, in the Dominion, or elsewhere, have given such outstanding service to the poor, the neglected, the sick, and the suffering in India, where she spent 36 fruitful years.

She was born in Australia, the eldest child of a Scot, Mr Daniel Henderson. whose family later came to New Zealand. She was trained as a school teacher, and taught for more than 20 years in the Dominion. In 1896 she relinquished her position as a teacher, and left Lyttelton for Sydney on her way to India to take up work as a missionary for the Church of Scotland. She was stationed at Madras, and set Iq work to study the Tamil language—one of the two most difficult languages in the world. She remained in Madras for 12 years, teaching in a school conducted under the auspices of the Scottish Ladies’ Association. When the New Zealand church opened a mission station in the Punjab, Miss Henderson w’as chosen as the pioneer tn build up the work of the mission. She btflli to good purpose. She conducted a school, she worked in a hospital, and for a time she. was in charge.of a leper station. Clever with her hands, she taught the impoverished women at her mission station to make lace. Many became very proficient, and by the sale of the lace, they earned money with which to eke out existence.

Among Miss Henderson’s fellowworkers in the Punjab was Dr. Porteous. now of Cashmere Hills, Christchurch. and one of her nieces. Miss Dorothy Mathew, is now teaching in the school her aunt founded.

A woman of great ability, wide interests, and indomitable courage. Miss Henderson retains her vigorous liveliness of speech, her idiomatic expressions. and her interest in those she left behind her in India. Recently, she received an invitation to the wedding of a young Indian man who had come under her care at the age of two. and for whose upbringing she was responsible. He enclosed a photograph of himself and his fiancee. She retired from her mission work in 1932. and returned to New Zealand. At the age of 87. she wrote a book of 200 pages, “My Yesterdays. In Sunshine and Shadow.” in which she gave a vivid and absorbing account of her life in India.

Miss Henderson now lives with her sister. Miss C. Henderson, in Menzies street, Sumner.