LECTURE IN WESLEY CHURCH.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 99, 28 April 1908, Page 5

LECTURE IN WESLEY CHURCH.

The lecture in the Wesley Church last night was well attended by an attentive congregation. The Rev. W. Slade spoke first on the Legends of Fiji and showed that the Fijians as a people were very fond of tall stories. He explained how these legends were preservGd. By tradition they were handed down from memory to memory. Storytellers were kept by the cLuc-ff of Fiji just as everything elsa \ras kept by him. He kept his 'butcher and baker, builder and blacksmith, gi-ccsr and cabinetmaker, and evary- other representative of industry found a home within the precincts of his domain. The storyteller had a fund of stories which he kept > ready for use whenever his master required them. The speaker then t-o-ld several legends of Fijian origin, all of which had a meaning, notwithstanding the exaggerations which characterised them throughout. The customs of the Fijians were also dealt with in a very entertaining manner. The 'custom of the Tambua, when a whale's tooth is given to ensure the performance of a deed of crualty in return for a personal slight, however unintentional, was portrayed in a graphic manner. Mr Baker, a missionary, who in leaving" a district failed to visit a chief j and acknowledge his,dignified position b;y the usual courtesies, was doomed jto die by this method of sending an embassy with the whale's tooth, so that whoever of the various tribes visited, contracted to put Baker to death by accepting him, were bound by the universal custom of the Fijians to put this death into execution. This was done in a very deceitful manner, showing the depravity of men who were then not touched by the softening and mellowing influence of Christianity. The custom known by the name vasu was very convenient for a nephew and his mother and father, but very inconvenient for an uncle and his wife and those of his own household. Under this custom a nephew could claim all the movable property ho might set his heart upon. Thus it was shown that a young man visiting his uncle might, on leaving, claim his horse and carriage, his wife's piano or anything belonging to the home however rnuoh it might be prized. By trris dis^^nv'siTip- en the legends and customs Mr Slade kept the people interested until nearly ten o'clock without wearying them in the least. All were able to pay at.the end that the lecture was what it was eirpected to be—a great treat.