HISTORY OF SOCIETY

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 23, 27 July 1934, Page 5

HISTORY OF SOCIETY

CANON JAMES'S ADDRESS

An interesting account of the early history of tho Church Missionary Society was given by Canon P. James at last evening's session of the missionary rally. Canon James said that for 135 years the society had been one of the missionary agencies of the Church of England, and was now the largest of its kind. It was interesting, said the speaker, to • recall the names of its founders. William Wilberforco, . the great liberator of 6laves in Anionca) Charles Simeon, Zacharay Macaulay, father of Lord Macaulay, and others. In 1804 the society sent out its first two missionaries to Africa, th'en a dark and unknown continent. So perilous was the work that in the first twenty years fifty-three of the missionaries died at- their posts. The society next turned its attention to New Zealand and India. In 1814 Samuel Marsden, who had been" chosen by William Wilr berforee, preached, the first sermon to the natives in New Zealand. Dealing with the more' modern history of the society, Canon James said that at the present time it maintained 27,000 -workers in the field..; It had 54 hospitals, served by 200 doctors, as well as a. large company of nurses. It also developed the policy of. missionary, schools, one'of the greatest of: civilisation's agencies amongst the natives. The New Zealand.. Church Missionary Society, which was founded forty years ago, enabled the English churches in tho Dominion to repay the debt they owed to the parent society for its work in connection with the .evangelisation of the Natives. . The New Zealand ■society supported European and Native workers in China, Japan, India, and Africa, and maintained . fourtoen beds in a hospital, in Persia. ■ Canon James said that the work of the socieety was ever increasing, and he stressed the point that additional funds were necessary .to help it carry on its good work. At the conclusion of Canon James's address, the Rev. D. Haultain, formerly of the Church Missionary Society's Uganda Mission, gave an interesting and informative lantern lecture entitled, "Tho Wonderful Story of Uganda." .