MISSION TO LEPERS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 18, 21 July 1934, Page 6

MISSION TO LEPERS

"The Mission to Lepers, which has its head office in London, has entered on its year of diamond jubilee, and it now numbers many thousands of men and women among tho patients who have found relief in the homes provided for them. Moreover, many hundreds of children of lepeis have been saved, from tho disease," said Mr. P. C. Perry, New Zealand secretary for the mission, to a representative of The Post", yesterday*. - Mr. Perry, whose'headquarters are in Auckland, and who succeeded-the Rev. I<\ A. Crawshaw in the New Zealand auxiliary, is at present visiting the Wellington district to give lantern lectures descriptive of the work of the mission in several countries. He explained that it was in 1869 that Mr. Welksley G-. Bailey was introduced to a small colony of lepers while ho was. stationed at Ambala, in the Punjab, India, arid engaged in educational work under the American Presbyterian Mission. While on furlough in Ireland he related his experiencea among : the lepers,and' the Mission to Lepers was founded. Gradually the mission built its owri v homes and so the Avork developed. The organisation was not. only international but ; interdenominational. , It did not send out missionaries but carried oil its work through- those already on tho field. Thus it was co-operating with 37 British, American, .'. and European Protestant missionary societies of all denominations.

• Mr.. Perry said it was hoped to mark the'year of the diamond jubilee with a forward movement requiring an additional £0000.. The cost oi providing for the simple needs of ltpers in the homes waa comparatively .'small, being about '£5 a j;o'ai" for a leper and £4 for a child. People in New Zealand and. else\vhere were' assisting the work by providing for one of these.cases.•' Foremost amongst the objects of the mission "was the bringing of I the Gospel to the lepers, -who were most .responsive. Of 'the 15,000 patients tinder care, 10,000. were Christian lepers. A list of meetings for the coming week appears Lin this issue.