DR. KUMM AT DUNEDIN.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 267, 31 October 1911, Page 6

DR. KUMM AT DUNEDIN.

THE PEOPLES OF AFRICA. Dr. Kumm address'd a ne'ti::; cf mon in tin* Trinity Church Hall bn Friday night, when the building was completley tilled. Dr. Kumm open 'd his mi Irc~s with a vivid recital of th? .'to>y o r the stolen gods of Micah to illustrate the point that wherever the whit? man's civilisation lias gons' to new nations it has taken away the old re'igons cf th-? peopl-?. That was a serious and v??v dangerous proceeding. The t ou'de in India would come not from ary ot its great rclgiious, but from the 16 Christless universities that the Government had established. It was a dangerous thing to tak? away the' restraining infiuenc? of Pagan religions, and that could only be met by giving th? pc-op’e the restraining influences of the Christian religions. If he did nothing es? that evening, he wished to show them the reasonableness of foreign missions from the' business and political standpoint. He recounted many striking and suggestive stories of bis “ South African children,” as he prefers to call them. One native of a tribe which had not before seen a white man explained the difference in race colour by a story exactly like that of Cain and Abel, adding that the murderer had turned whit? with fear on the appearance of the Great Spirit. The lecturer added that this theory of the origin of the whit? man would not seem improbable to those who knew of the Congo atrocities. .Another native in the heart of Africa had explained the difference of colour exactly on the Darwinian theory. The natives were children, and if they were treated firmly and kindly as such it would solve the whole negro problem. They should not be allowed to grow up without the restraints to which we put upon our own children. Referring to th' Moslem menace, ho pointed out that no one part of the Empire.' could ; suffer without other parts being drawn in. He told a thrilling story of the Moslem war with the Bongo tribe, and of the moral degradation that was nor. going on as a result of Mahommedan influ'iice. Speaking of the' reverence paid to the statin' of Gordon by the natives, he said there was only one name in Africa that would never be forgotten, ami that the' name' d bordon Pasha. The lecture--. who.'-' remarks were brightened by man? touche's of genuine humour. > ucceedoel in leaving a deep impression of the urgent need for the immediate extension of Christian enterprise among tin peoples of Afr'ca.