MISSION WORK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 121, 21 April 1938, Page 12

MISSION WORK.

INLAND AUSTRALIA. PROTECTING FAMILY LIFE.

J aimerston North and gratitude for tue interest being taken in New Zealand m. tlie work of the Australian inland Mission. She said that New Zealand was a wonderful country and it was only after living in the ' Australian inland that the privileges enjoyed by/ New Zealanders could be adequately appreciated. “In New Zealand,”-she added, “there seems to be plenty, of everything; we have motored along, happy in the thought that it we required anything it was just round the next corner.” In Australia it was vastly different. * It would be folly to set out on any long journey, for instance, without ah adequate supply of water and provisions. Mrs Flynn told of an experience she and a party had while motoring in the country beyond Charleville. There was no formed road, no telephone, no telegraph, but the people on the whole were happy. In some cases there was a

distance up to 50 miles between homes, •Vet there was no complaint about loneliness. “As a matter of fact, if you want to make these people angry,” said Mrs Flynn, “you just, haye ‘to sympathise with them. They have the worry of illness with a doctor hundreds of miles away; they have the worry of dust storms and drought; hut their courage is an inspiration.” The women were noble and stout-hearted I —only a noble and stout-hearted woman could be happy under such conditions. The speaker gave details of the foundation of the mission, the policy of which had been to protect family life. The country had been pioneered by man, and men alone had lived in it. It had been no place for family life. Mr Flynn had resolved that it must be otherwise, and he had started on the provision of medical services. He had said: “No doctors, no women ; no wo- 1 men, no church.” The Gospel had to go-.

inland, and it could not go inland without women and the family life. To-day, said Mrs Flynn, there were many happy families in the inland. There were medical stations and nursing homes founded by the mission, and j although, as she had already stated, I there were many miles between stations! and between families, wonderful pro- I gress had been made. The radio had played a big part in the happiness of the people, and tnere were a number of radio transmitting stations by which information was despatched from one I to the other and to the settlers. The | “flying doctor” service had been instituted about-10 years ago and it, too, had been a boon to the people. The flying doctors were stationed at Cloncurry. the “mother station,” and other bases, and contact was kept with them by radio. Mrs Flynn paid a tribute to the Countrywomen’s Association of Queensland which had presented the mission with many radio sets for distribution, among the people. The radio had been the biggest boon to the inland, declared the speaker, who quoted instances of how lives had been saved through its aid. Mrs Flynn described the spiritual activity of the mission, pointing out how the padres travelled from place to place, from school to school, from shed | to shed, telling of the Gospel 6tory and cheering the hearts of an isolated yet lovely and happy people. • The speaker was accorded a hearty vote of thanks. ,

There was a large attendance of ladies in St. Andrew's Hall, yesterday afternoon, when Mrs Flynn, wife of Kev. John Flynn (superintendent of tlie Australian Inland Mission) gave a short address on the activities of the mission. The speaker has been closely. associated with her husband in his missionary activities for over a quarter of a century, and she gave an interesting insight into the work done and the problems overcome. Mrs Mount presided, and following the singing of a missionary hymn and prayer, a Welcome was accorded ’ the visitor. Mrs Flynn opened her address bv expressing thanks for the welcome to