PRESBYTERY OF DUNEDIN

Evening Star, Issue 23846, 28 March 1941, Page 4

PRESBYTERY OF DUNEDIN

ORDINATION OF A MISSIONARY The Presbytery of Dunedin ipet in St. Stephen's Church last evening lor the ordination of Mr J. G. Miller as a missionary to the New Hebrides. The Uev. Professor J. A. Allen, Moderator of the Presbytery, presided and conducted the service of ordination. The Rev. H. Rehbein preached the occasional sermon, and the Rev. G. H. M‘Meur addressed the missionary and hia wife. , The Rev. J. G. Miller, LL.13., is a son of the Rev. Thomas Miller, M.A., of St. Stephen’s Church, North Dunedin. He was born at Raugiora m 1913, and is an old boy of the Palmerston North and Otago High Schools. After leaving school he was for a time in the employ of Messrs Galloway and Mowat, solicitors, and of the Government State Advances Department in Wellington. Mr Miller was the first travelling representative of the iutervarsity of Evangelical Unions. He entered Knox Theological Hall in 1939, and was accepted for the New Hebrides in, November, 1940. Mr Miller’s wife was Miss Flora MacDonald, former student of the Presbyterian Women’s Training Institute. Of athletic build, Mr Miller first took up football as a recreation, but later became a keen harrier, being elected captain of the Mornington team. While at the University he distinguished, himself as a debater. The New Hebridean Islands was the first mission field of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. The work was begun in 1869 by' the Rev. William Watt, who worked for years, on the island of Tanna without any visible results. In 1870 the Rev. Peter Milne went to Nguna. After a life-time of service he was succeeded by his son, the Rev. W. V. who was killed by a demented native in 1937. In 1879 the Rev. Oscar Michelsen began work on Tongoa. and laboured there for over 50 years. Among others who have been associated with the mission are Dr J. T. Bowie, Rev. J. W. Mansfield, Rev. Thomas Small. Rev. T. E. Riddle. Rev. B. R. C. Nottage. and l ,Rev. C. K. Crump. The wives of the missionaries have nobly' shared in the work. The Rev. Frank Baton said concerning them: “In all the toil and sacrifice and peril of missionary life in the Pacific a noble share has been borne by the wives of the missionaries. Their record is unspeakably heroic.”