A VAST DIOCESE

Evening Star, Issue 21708, 1 May 1934, Page 9

A VAST DIOCESE

WORK OF THE CHURCH IN POLYNESIA DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVEL Although ho covers thousands of miles of ocean yearly in an extremely varied assortment of craft—mail boats, warships, sailing cutters, launches, and even canoes—Bishop L. S. Kempthorne makes light of the difficulties of the administration of his vast diocese cf Polynesia, which covers 4,000,009 square miles—mostly water. ■ An outline of tho work going on in this widely scattered diocese was given to the Christchurch ‘ Press ’ by Bishop Kempthorne in an interview. He is making an appeal for funds to establish the church in Samoa. The bishop said that his diocese extended for 4,000 miles from east to west and 1,500 miles from north to south, and the work of the mission was most cosmopolitan in character. In contrast with the diocese of Melanesia, which has only 500 or COO “ whites,” Polynesia has a European population of 10,000. Ju Fiji, the headquarters of the mission, there are 90,000 Fijians and 75,000 Indians, brought or bom there as a result of the system of indentured labour which existed for fifty years. There are also large numbers of Chinese and Melanesians, such as Solomon Islanders, under the care of the mission there. EXTENSIVE TRAVELLING. Bishop Kempthorne has in his charge islands as widely separated as the; Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Nauru, and Ocean Island. He spends a great deal of each year in travelling, much of it very uncomfortable, for Polynesia has no mission ship ns Melanesia has. He visits the main centres at least once each year, but it is not possible to visit many portions of the diocese so frequently. _ Owing to the lack of transport facilities he has to go through Australia to visit Ocean Island, and through Wellington to visit Rarotonga. Bishop Kempthorne added that he was about to pay his first visit to Nauru in eleven years and his second to Ocean Island. The general depression lias made itself felt even in the bishop’s supervision of his diocese. He remarked that since interisland trading had fallen off he had fojmd it much more difficult to get from place to place. It had been his practice to make extensive use of the island trading vessels, but now he found that much more frequently he had to make other arrangements for his transport. EDUCATIONAI WORK. A glowing tribute to the work of the many missionaries and teachers in his district was paid by Bishop Kempthorne. He said that in the face of tremendous difficulties valuable educational work was being carried on even in the most isolated islands. An example of some of tho unexpected difficulties that the church workers had to face was provided by the experience of an Auckland woman who set out to build up a large school for Indian girls. At first she found it difficult to make headway owing to the custom of taking the girls away at the age of twelve to be married. However, the school had proved successful, and was flourishing. “ Leprosy is no longer the scourge it once was,” remarked the bishop m speaking of the 500 lepers at Makogai. They were, of course, isolated from the world, but they lived under almost ideal conditions and were quite happy, if steps were taken early enough there was an excellent prospect of a cure, and .many lepers had been released from Makogai as being freed from the disease. Life in the islands, even in such outposts as Ocean Island, did not involve the hardships that many imagined, Bishop Kempthorne told the reporter. There was a very considerable European population, which naturally saw to it that as many of I the amenities of civilised countries as possible were transported to the new home. It must not be imagined, however, that life was always a bed of roses. In many cases, particularly where missionaries and teachers were breaking new ground, thero_ was a good deal of hardship. Certain islands in tho Pacific were so barren that not even vegetables could bo grown, and the population had to live very largely on tinned food and depend on the all-to-raro visits of steamers for fresh food supplies. AN APPEAL FOR FUNDS. Travelling so much by sea, Bishop Kempthorne appreciates all the more what little travelling ho has to do by land. “In Fiji 1 have gained something of a reputation as a walker, thanks to my early training in New Zealand,” the bishop remarked, and added that his earliest association with Christchurch, in the cathedral of which he preached on Sunday, was in a secondary school Rugby match, when he played for Nelson College against the Christchurch Boys’ High School. An appeal for help for his diocese to establish its work in Samoa is being made in New Zealand by Bishop Kempthorne. He told the interviewer that tho chief need was for £1,500 to purchase a property there on very reasonable terms. It was hoped that £SOO would be raised by the church in New Zealand and the remainder in England and Polynesia itself. His diocese had undertaken to provide about a third of the fnoney required. The bishop said that the mission was hampered by lack of funds. Instead of the three schools at present in Fiji, in could establish twenty.