MISSION WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 65, 14 September 1926, Page 13

MISSION WORK

NORTH-WEST AUSTRALIA

WOMAN'S EXPERIENCES,

(From Our Own Corrupondant.)

SYDNEY, 9th September.

There arrived in Melbourne a few days ago a woman who has had a unique experience of mission work in the north-western region of Australia. She was Mrs. Brady, widow of the Eev. F. G. H. Brady, of the Presbyterian Inland Mission at Broome, Westcm Australia. Since the death of her husband, nine months ago, Mrs. Brady has conducted the mission herself. For the past five months she has officiated at all services held in the church, and has even worked among the men on the pearling luggers. She has many vivid stories to tell of . the hardships and pleasures of life in the great northwest.

Mrs. Brady said that after living for five years at Broome she had come to the conclusion that isolation was the chief obstacle to the settlement of the surrounding country. There was little fruit or vegetables, and no ice. Mails were delivered once a week by air. Aoroplanos had done wonders for country people in Western Australia. Dayold chickens, puppies, ducklings, medicine, machinery, all these were part of the freight they were called upon to carry. "It is a mere nothing," Mrs. Brady added, "to step into an aeroplane and fly 90 miles to an afternoon toa."

Describing some of the hardships, Mrs. Brady said: —"For four months of the year, in winter, everything goes dry. Tho bread is like iron, your lips crack, and combs and stamps curl up into a ball. In the summer everything is damp. Mould forms on boots and shoes, and salt runs like water. Tlie insects are the worst pest. Weevils attack even cayenne pepper. Two little children I knew had finished their tea one night, and had evidently struck a swarm of them. As they were saying their prayers, one cried, 'Now we'll say the prayer about the weevils.' They gravely recited the Lord's Prayor, and ended up with, 'Load us not into temptation, and deliver us from weevils!' "

Tho Inland Mission, with which Mrs. Brady was connected, works only among whites. There is another mission for aborigines 300 miles north of Broome, at Port George. Two white women live there, each with a daughter in her teens. They' have no trouble with the natives. Black servants are employed at Broome for this mission, and they are exceptionally strong and healthy. They are happy and laughterloving. Frequently, Mra. Brady says, one hears screams of mirth coming from their camp. "They are usually laughing at what they think the mad ways of the whites," she explained.