WOMEN'S MISSIONARY UNION

Evening Star, Issue 19638, 18 August 1927, Page 14

WOMEN'S MISSIONARY UNION

ANNUAL MEETING ■ Tljo annual mealing of tlio Presbyterian W,omen's Missionary Union was held on Tuesday afternoon in Hums Hall. Thu Ucv. 1). Ciiinplicli, Moderator of the Presbytery, presided, and there was an excellent attendance of members. The animal report and financial statement were read and adopted, the position thus disclosed being very satisfactory. The only minor note struck was u sympathetic reference in the report to the illness of the secretary, ’Mrs Allan. After the adoption of the report Mrs Hcwitson, on behalf of the Presbyterian Association, handed a cheque to Miss Violet Sutherland, who will leave Dunedin shortly to take up missionary work in India. A wedding gift from the committee of the same body was then presented by its president to Miss Herrington, who is also to proceed to that country. The Rev. A. L. Miller gave a very interesting address on present-day missionary conditions in China. He took an optimistic view, and assured his hearers that the bottom had not fallen out of China by any means, and that, after th* efforts of the missionaries sent to China from New Zealand and elsewhere, it would be doubting Providence to think so. Special reference was made to tlio sending orvfe of the Rev. A. Don and the Rev. G. R. M'Nenr nearly thirty years ago, and how those pioneers had taken witli them tlio best of introductions in the shape of letters and parcels from the Chinese in Now Zealand to their friends and relatives at home. The footing thus gained had never been lost, but, on the rontrary, extended. Ho mentioned the hold gained on the young Chinese through the teaching given in the mission schools, and tlio great work done by the hospitals. The latter sent men and women back to their homes in the country districts cured physically nml witli their mental prejudices removed. Such people gained a new outlook on life and new hope. Treachers, teachers, and nurses visiting villages where such people resided found their wav an easy one. This experience, Mr Miller said, was general so far as the Canton villages and most of South China were concerned. Mr Miller explained that the nucleus of a Chinese church was a group, usually of about twenty-five persons. Out of‘these a committee was selected, one of the members being the missionary. Tho various committees scut representatives to a body similar to our Presbytery, and from the Presbytery were chosen tlio members of tlio Synod. All the Nonconformist bodies worked together under the title of the Church of Christ. Tlio Roman Catholics and the Anglicans preierred to adhere to. their own organisations. Prior to the revolution the Chinese converts, excellent in many ways, were inclined to throw all responsibility on tlio missionary. They were organised as a church, hut thev ilid not function as a church. The hostility lately met with, however, brought out all that was best in them, and when it was deemed to be to their advantage to carry on practically by themselves they showed an unsuspected and marvellous strength of character. To-day, when a missionary who had been ordered by the British Consul to leave his district returns, he is enthusiastically welcomed. The following office-bearers for the current Tear were elected : —President. Mrs Barton; vice-presidents—Mesdamcs Blackie, Bowie, Herrington, and Rogers; secretary, Mrs Allan: treasurer, Mrs Alcock; box secretary. Mrs Beath; Harvest Field secretary, Miss Steven; M.M.8.L.. Miss Brown; distributor of literature. Miss M'Cosli Smith; Busy Bees, Mrs Swan. During intervals Miss IT. Hodges sang a solo, and an acceptable Hern was contributed by the choir. Votes of thanks to nil v/no hrul assisted were passed, nftrr whirl; the Modern for pronounced tlio Benedict ion nnd the meeting closed.