A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 192, 11 May 1937, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Melanesian Mission In “The Dominion” yesterday reference was made to the seven ships each bearing the name. Southern Cross which have been used by the Melanesian Mission. The first Southern Cross was secured by the efforts of Bishop Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand. He made a journey to England, leaving New Zealand in 1853 and remaining in England throughout 1854. His objects in going home were, first, to secure the power to subdivide his vast diocese, aud especially to establish a bishop at Wellington and at the new Canterbury settlement in the South Island; secondly, to secure for the Church of New Zealand a legal power to manage its own affairs by means of a mixed “general synod”; thirdly, to obtain a full recognition by the Church of England of the Melanesian Mission, and of her duty ere long to provide it with a bishop of its own. Before he returned to New Zealand all these objects had been more or less completely attained. The recognition of Bishop Selwyn’s efforts to evangelise Melanesia was so hearty that £lO,OOO was soon raised to form an endowment for its future, bishop. A new mission schooner (the Southern Cross) was presented to him for his voyages of inspection and education. Grim Record of Murders. The early days of missions and colonisation in Melanesia were marked by a grim record of murders. In 1845 the French Mission of the Society of Mary landed on the south coast of San Christoval, the party consisting of six fathers and fire lay brothers under the direction of Bishqp Epalle. On December 16 Bishop Epalle was murdered by natives. The mission was finally abandoned in 1847 after the murder of three more of the party by natives and the death of another from malari.a. Fifty years later the mission was again established. Bishop Selwyn made his first visit to the Solomons in connection with the Melanesian Mission about 1850. In 1851 Mr. Benjamin Boyd, a trader from New South Wales, was murdered by natives. A similar fate overtook Bishop Patterson, who was in charge of the Melanesian Mission vessel, and in 1575 Commodore Goodenough was murdered at Santa Cruz. Chequers. Chequers, where the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr. Savage, has been spending a week-end with Mr. Stanley Baldwin, is a mansion and estate in Buckinghamshire. It was presented, in October, 1917, by the then owner, Sir Arthur Lee, M.P., later Lord Lee of Fareham, to the nation, with the proviso that after his death it should be used as the official country residence of the Prime Minister for the time being. Very generously he moved out during 1921 so that Mr. Lloyd George was able to take up residence there in January of that year. The house stands in a sheltered hollow of the Chiltern Hills, nearly 700 feet above the sea, and is only 3S miles by road from Hyde Park Corner, London. The estate, apart from the house, embraces 1500 acres, and consists of the gardens and grounds round the house, farms, woods, and Coomhe Hill, the last-mentioned being the highest point of the Chilterns (852 feet). The mansion, formerly known as Chokers, is one of the most historic sites in the country. The remains of the ancient stronghold or castle of Cymberline, the reputed birthplace of Caractacus (about A.D. 1) are still prominent in the park. In the reign of Henry II the house was the residence of Elias de Scaccario, Keeper of the King’s Exchequer. No trace of the original house remains, but it was rebuilt about 1326. It remained the property of the “De Scaccario” or “De Chekers” family until 1254, when it passed to the Hawtrey family. Sir Arthur Lee and Lady Lee inherited the estate in 1909 and restored the house and gardens. Friedrichshafen. Friedrichshafen, which is in deep mourning for the victims of the Hindenburg disaster, is a town of Wurttemberg, Germany. It stands on Lake Constance, and consists of two parts. Hofen and Buchhorn. It has a harbour on the lake, built by Frederick I, King of Wurttemberg, who united the two places and gave the town its present name. The chief building is a palace which was used by the former Kaiser William 11. Friedrichshafen is a tourist resort, and steamers go from there to various places on the lake. But since the opening of the present century, and especially during the Great War, its main interest is as a Zeppllin depot. In the workshops the airships are put together, and over the lake they make their trials. The Zeppelin hangars were bombed bv Allied aeroplanes d” iug 1914-15. God Save the King. Lord Bledisloe is seeking a change in the National Anthem, “God Save the King,” on New Zealand lines, substituting “our” for “the” iu the third and last lines of each verse. It is said by some that bolii the words and music of the National Anthem were composed by Dr. Johan Ball (1562-1625), organist at Antwerp Cathedral (1617-1628), where the original manuscript is still preserved. Others attribute them to Henry Carey, author of “Sally in Our Alley.” The words “Send him victorious.” it has been suggested, belong to a Jacobite song, aud Sir John Sinclair has said that he saw that verse cut in an old glass tankard, the property of r. Murray Trreiplaud, of Fingask Castle, whose predecessors -were staunch Jacobites. There is uo doubt that the words have often been altered. The air and opening words, it is stated, were probably suggested by the “Domiue Salvnm” of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1605 the lines, “Frustrate their knavish tricks,” etc., were added, it is thought, in reference to Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. In 1740 Ilenry Carey reset both words and music for the Mercers’ Company on the birthday of George 111.

The earliest extant version of words anil music appeared in the “Gentleman’s Magazine’’ in October, 1745, following upon the singing of the anthem at Drury Lane Theatre during September as a loyal retort to the proclamation of the Pretender at Edinburgh. There is said to be evidence that ft was sung in Latin in James Il’s chapel in IGSS. and preserved as a Jacobite hymn.