A VAST DIOCESE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 83, 9 April 1934, Page 10

A VAST DIOCESE

ISLANDS OF POLYNESIA

BISHOP REViEWS WORK

The.work going on in the most widely . scattered diocese in the world, the diocese of. Polynesia, was reviewed on Friday evening by the bishop of the diocese, Bishop L. S. Keiupthorne, in a lantern lecture given at St.' Andrew's Hall, Jipsom (states the "-New Zealand Herald"). The bishop described his diocese as extending for 4000 miles from east to west and for 1500 miles from north to south, but he admitted the truth of tho remark that it "consisted mainly of water."

A feature of the work of the mission stressed by Bishop Kcmpthoi-ne was its cosmopolitan character. There are ovev 10,000. whites.scat.tered throughout Polynesia, in contrast with only 500 or 600 ] in Melanesia. In Fiji, where the headquarters of the mission are situated, there are 90,000 Fijians and 75,000 Indians brought or born there as the result of the system of indentured labour which existed for fifty years. Under the care of the mission come " also large numbers of Chinese and of Melanesians such as Solomon Islanders. Almost all the lantern slides . shown were of scenes in Fiji, but the lecturer explained that he had oversight also of such far-flung islands as Samoa, Earotonga, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Nauru, and Ocean Island. Among the branches of the work illustrated were t.ho mission schools for Chinese, for Indians, and for Melanesians and the visitation of the leper colony of Makogai. He paid a tribute to the splendid educational work done by Miss James, of Auckland, now Mrs. Elder, in building up in face of many difficulties a largo and successful Indian girls' school. A great hindrance to this work was the custom of taking the girls away at the age of twelve to be mar-

Speaking of the 500 lepers at Makogai, the bishop said they were really a very happy lot. They lived under almost ideal conditions and many had been released as freed from the disease. Leprosy was no longer the plague it once was, and if taken nearly enough there Teas excellent prospect of cure.