ST. ANDREW’S GUILD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 151, 27 May 1938, Page 11

ST. ANDREW’S GUILD.

ADDRESS ON INDIA. 1 Members of the St. David’s Presby- ■ terian Church Ladies’ Guild were i guests at the monthly meeting of the St. Andrew’s Guild yesterday after-, noon.? A wealth of flowers and foliage, artistically arranged, gave an air of festivity to the hail. A bowl of shellpink roses and maidenhair i’ern stood on the presidential table, and the stage was arranged with howls of spindle berries, chrysanthemums and foliage in autumn tones. Vases containing a wide variety of flowers for this time of year stood on the tea tables and were also placed around the walls. Mrs M. Aitchison presided and extended a hearty welcome to the-visi-tors, who had been invited to hear

Dr. A. L. Sutherland, of: Jagadhri, Punjab. . i ; . ' ■ _ Miss L. McDonald sang two songs which were much appreciated, Mrs H. Pierrard playing her accompaniments,, Mis?. Coyla Cairns recited and was enthusiastically encored. Afternoon tea was served by Mesdames H. Boshier, B. K. Bennett, Hi Boyd,-S. Bradfield, J. Aikin, A. Budd and Misses A. Astbury and G. Bartlett, assisted by the committee. Dr. Sutherland expressed- his pleasure at being present and seeing such a representative gathering of members of the two congregations. He then spoke on various aspects of mission work which he did not -propose to touch on in his later lectures. He described his impressions of Colombo harbour .on his first trip to India. There were a large number of ships in the harbour and coaling was being carried on by women. Their work was very arduous and they received about 5d a day. When they went out to work they often gave their babies opium to' keep . them quiet for the day. Other women earned a living scraping up the,:,scanty ; grass by the roadside. People oftep; spoke ■of : India as a wealthy Country. There were a few extremely wealthy people; 90 per I cent, were poor and bearing a burden 'of poverty difficult, to imagine in New Zealand. Professional letter writers were necessary in India, as 80 to 85 per cent, of the people could not ’ write. The state of this ignorance was difficult, to grasp, as so much came to : us through reading. Naturally there , was'a great deal of superstition arising from this ignorance. Even many 1 educated people were superstitious, and those without education were sill more so.

Dr. Sutherland described various examples of this superstition and ignorance. A great number of people had to bear a burden of sickness. They lived mostly in villages where sanitation was unknown and there were often dirty pools where mosquitoes bred and infected the villages with malaria. Fruit and vegetables were practically unknown, the people not being able to afford to buy them, so that sickness was often the consequence of a badly balanced diet. Until the authorities were able to tackle the conditions in the homes they could not get far, A great many of the diseases taking toll of life in India "were, preventible—such as those due to drinking water from dirty wells. In. every village there were sick _peop)e, so the missionaries always carried medical .supplies. '.There was also , the burden of , sin. , -/- ’! What .could We do . about these four burdens? the . speaker asked. What was the; Church doing? We had been told ;.to ; bear- vone another’s burdens... Poverty , was more , a political, question than one for the Church, but -missionaries were ; naturally inSjr.ested in it.,. The; Jagadhri mission ~owned a third .share in a technical school which was teaching .boys .useful trades. They were also trying to get the.'people to grow their own - fruit and vegitables, and teaching the boys and girls; in the schools to., do . so. Ignorance , was also relieved in . the schools. The problem of bringing the people to Christ was a vast one. which could only be accomplished through/ the people themselves., Dr;.,, Sutherland outlined a] system of simple reading lessons now in use;, ■. v ,: V ! •,/.

To' deal with sickness they had a hospital of 60 beds, which also treated 50 out-patients a day. They did what they, could for the - people who were sick, but the greater problem was teaching them to alter their conditions for the prevention of disease. It was a tremendous problem which cost money to solve, which they were dependent on the Church budget allocations.

Dr. Sutherland concluded his address with a few humorous anecdotes airising from language difficulties of the doctors and missionaries.

A vote of thanks to the speaker was proposed by Miss M. Matheson and heartily endorsed by Mrs Aitchison, who thanked also the'' entertainers, hostesses and helpers. On behalf of St. David’s Guild Mrs A. Stewart (president) returned thanks for the hospitality extended also congratulated Mrs Aitchison on her recent success in the Hospital Board election.

Apologies for absence were received from Mrs R. D. Knight and Mrs J. Linklater. The door hostesses were Misses M. Matheson, M. Sutherland and A. Matthewson.