MELANESIAN MISSION

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3286, 4 March 1926, Page 3

MELANESIAN MISSION

THE EXTENSION OF THE BOUNDARIES. In a recent pastoral letter from Bishop Sprott, road by Canon Fancourt last Sunday at All Saints’, a stirring appeal is made to churchmen to accord practical support next Sunday to a mighty now enterprise in which Church and State alike are working' side by side i and which marks a new era in tho history of the new Pacific. An enormous extension of the Ocean-see under control of tho Bishop of Melanesia hart been made in the recen|t taking—in She territory formerly known as German New Guinea and the great adjoining islands of New Britain and New Ireland and many other smaller island-groups, as well as the islands of Buka and Bougainville in .the Northern Solomons. The following notes will be of interest to the general public (taken in part from a Sydney ;publication “Stewarts Handhood of the Pacific Islands’’), as they strikingly indicate the magnitude of the interests involved, both ethical and commercial. Nothing Is more satisfactory to a business man. whether he be councillor* or ratepayer than a detailed and orderly presenilation of facts, illustrative of past or future plans and operations in the life of a town of city community. Bu\ this great question is more 'than civic; it is a national and even an Imperial one. Therefore to those who take anything of a practical and altruistic Interest in Christ! : misisons, as well as one more strictly utilitarian in the social and comomereial development of this notable accession of territory now under the British flag, the following figures and facts cannot but bo of service and 'interest. Extension of the Boundaries. (1) The area of late German New Guinea (capital Madang) is 70,000 square miles. Population 200,000. (2) Tho area of New Britain (capital Rabaul) is 10,000 square miles. Population some 35,000. (3) The area of New Ireland (capital Kawicti" or - Nusa-Haven) is 5,000 square miles. Population some 45 000. (4) The area of other smaller Island groups ’ is about 3,000 square mites. Population about 30,000. (5) The area of Buka and Bougainville (Northern Solomons) is about 4 300 square miles Population some 40,000. This gives us in all on area of some i-2,000 square miles .calling for cultivation and development of resources and a population of some 330 000 natives; calling for Christian instruction and Christian civilisation. Kabaul, the commercial centre of the whole possession and the seat of Administration, has already won itself a little niche in history.

Reclaimed magnificently by German enterprise, at a cost of many lives, white and native, from noisome swamps full of mosquitoes and malaria it has become a fine healthy little town, laid out in broad avenues and excellent roads loading out into thriving coconut plantations. Here .at.ded the Australian Expedition under Col. Holmes In September, 1914; and here in the sueessful attach on the big German wireless station at Bita Palta, a few miles inland, fell two distinguished officers —Commander Elwes and Hr. Packley of the A.M.S. Rahaul possesses a splendid harbour and well-constructed wharves and boajts, a complete telephone ser. \ ice, hospitals, hotels, good stores, and even ice-works. - The possession has wonderful commercial possibilities. the initial difficulties of pioneer work having neen largely overcome already by German science and by solid German thoroughe* ness. There is gold in New Guinea, and nsmiridium and oil; but the surest ■ource of wealth at present Is copra. Madang is the centre of a great exnort trade in Birds of Paradise, the yellow, the red and the scarcer blue. And there are great possibilities In planting of cacao and Para rubber (hevea brasilensis) and In the development of pearl and trocasshell fisheries and of trepang or beche-de-mer collecting factories along the coast. New Britain has exensive tracts of rich land suitable tor cultivation, and throughout the possession are numerous coconut plantations laid out with true Teutonic method and thoroughness which when fuliy taken up and properly worked will mean an enormous Increase in, copra export. Therefore, Imperially thinking and speaking, wa have here in this 'xcw Melanesia a

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mighty opportunity and a mighty responsibility. And we may be sure that the Hand of -.Providence, now that the. harvest is so. great, will raise op workers of & like spirit ta Patterson and Chalmers to enter in and possess the land, and give 'these wild untaught people under'the generous and merciful protection of the Briltish flag, a glimpse of-a-''higher and a better life than they have known hereto, together with . Christian education, and law and happy, cheerful ordered industry* V ' —F.W.C.