RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 19 September 1936, Page 10

RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

JOHN COLERIDGE PATTESON

MARTYR BISHOP OF MELANESIA

To-morrow, 20th September, is the 65th anniversary of the death of Bishop Patteson. “How I think of these islands! Hundreds of people are crowded upon them; armed, naked, and with uncouth cries and -gestues. . . . But they are all my children now. May God enable me to do my duty by them.” Thus wrote John Coleridge Patteson, Missionary Bishop in Melanesia. He whose life was taken by men for whom he would gladly have given it. The sugar plantations in Fiji and Queensland were much in need of native labour, and to secure this, trading vessels plied amongst the reefs and islands to enlist cheap labour—the natives. They began to become shy of “foreign” land? and food conditions, and refused to “sign on.” Then the traders resorted to unscrupulous ways and means to get their human cargo. One of the worst features of this kidnapping was the free use of the Bishop’s name as a decoy. The natives were told that he was aboard and wanted to see them, that he had broken his leg and had sent the ship to fetch them. And in more than one case his effigy was dressed in a black coat with book in hand, and affixed to the prow of the vessel. News of all this brought the Bishop back to his islands before he was really convalescent. He found that the planters in Fiji and Queensland did not wish the natives to be kidnapped, and would have preferred to have received them without all this evident distress and ill-humour. CLOSING SCENE The closing scene draws near. The third voyage of the “Southern Cross” was more than half over when the terrible calamity occurred' which grieved and shocked the civilised world. When the sun rose on the morning of the 20th September, 1871. the ship headed for Nukapu. The Bishop gathered his young Melanesians round him on the deck, and talked to them with mysterious and unconscious appropriateness of the death of Stephen. “And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” In due time the ship stood off the coral reef, and several canoes filled with natives were seen cruising about. Taking with him a few presents, the Bishop and his party got into the boat and pulled towards the island. Although the people recognised him, there was a strangeness in their manner. To disarm any suspicions they might have, he went into one of their canoes, and then Mr Atkins, his companion, thought he caught the word , “Tabu,” which refers among this race : to the offering of presents to an in- • tended victim. BISHOP DISAPPEARS IN CROWD !

Some yams and fruit were placed before the Bishop. The canoes were then dragged over the reef into the deep lagoon, and the friends of the Bishop saw him land, and then disappear in the crowd. With intense anxiety they awaited his return. Presently a man in one of the canoes began shouting, “Have you anything like this?” and a shower of arrows followed, each with its cry of vengeance. “This for New Zealand man! This for Bauro man! This for Mota man!”

The men in the other canoes began firing simultaneously. The little boat’s crew pulled away, but not before Stephen, John and the Rev. John Atkin were wounded severely .... Mr Atkin went back with Mr Bongard (mate of the “Southern and an armed boat’s crew to seek tidings of the Bishop. At about half-past four, two canoes rowed towards them; one cast off the other and went back, the second drifted down beside them. In this, wrapped in a native mat, lay the body of Bishop Patteson. Upon the, breast was laid part of a coconut pa!m with five knots tied in the leaves, and when they unwrapped the body, beneath the spray of palms were five wounds. His face was calm and full of peace: he had not suffered from the spear wounds in' his breast, for the murderous blow with a clab at the back of his head must have at once deprived him of life. SORROWFUL VOYAGE i The next day, with breaking hearts, the little company committed the body of their Bishop to the deep, to lie until that great day when the sea shall restore her dead at the Almighty summons.

The sorrowful voyage back to Norfolk Island was attended by the death (in great agony) of the two wounded Melanesians, and the Rev. Joseph Atkin (aged 29 years), the true-hearted disciple and loved companion of the Bishop in many perils. May be the fittest conclusion to the Bishop’s life story will be the words written by Henry Tagalana, translated by the Rev. R. H. Codrington:— As he taught, he confirmed his words with his good life among us, as we ail know, and also that he perfectly well helped anyone who might be unhappy about anything, and spoke comfort to him about it. And about his character and conduct, they were consistent with the law of God. He gave the evfdence in his life and practice, for he did nothing carelessly lest he should mak" anyone stumble and turn from the good way. And again, he did nothing to gam anything for himself alone, but he sought what he might help others with, and then he worked with it; and the reason was his pitifulness and his love. And again, he did not despise anyone, nor reflect anyone with scorn: whether it were a white or a black person, he thought them ail as one, and he loved them all alike.