THE MELANESIA MISSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13625, 19 December 1907, Page 7

THE MELANESIA MISSION.

ANNUAL MEETING. NEED FOR MEN AND MONEY. [FROM OUR OWN* CORItKSrOSDENT.] London, November 8. YEsTKnpAt afternoon, at the Church IJouso, Westminster, the Bishop of St. Albans occupied the chair at the annual meeting of tho Mclancsian Mission. There was a good attendance, including tho Archbishop ot Canterbury, tho Rev. John Still, tho Rev. A E. Corner (organising secretary), Captain D'Oylcy, and others. In tho coins* of his address, tho chairman said that at tho present time tho mission required steady support, both financially and as regarded men. Tho treasurer had received a telegram begging them to send,out £2000, because- tho bank in New Zealand felt that it ought not to give more credit. They had borrowed from their banks at home, in order to send out tho money required, and ho hoped that the friends of tho mission would do what they could to make tho amount good. ' It was merely a matter of £2000, for the present liabilities of tho mission were £5730. A heavier expenditure had been incurred during tho past year, as tho mission ship, tho Southern Cross, had mado threo voyages to tho islands, instead of two as before. Each of these voyages meant such great blessing that it would bo wrong of thorn to starvo tho mission by not enabling thorn to do with tho chip that for which she was supplied. With reference to men, 'tho chairman said they must send out more. They had admirable young men in training lor tho mission, but they wanted more, and lie trusted that the work would never tail to attract faithful men. The Archbishop of Canterbury remarked that it was refreshing to him to get back to first principles from tho perplexing problems which beset so many of the branches of the work of the Church. If there was one part of the Church's work more than another which took them back to tho fundamental facts of mission life, devotion, and martyrdom, it was tho Melanesian Mission. Tho whole story of that field of work, from the beginning to the present time, had been one consecutive picture of devotion, and growing and increasing success had crowned tho work which had been set forward. They wore asked to help, at a time of special difficulty and emergency to carry on the work. It would be unworthy of them to allow this, one of the greatest parts of tho mission work which tho Church of modern times had seen, to languish or to bo impaired. Captain D'Oyley, E.N., who lately has come back from a commission in the .Southwest Pacific, and who while there had some experience of the mission's work, said that the missionary in the southern seas was tho greatest asset that civilisation had. Tho missionary was doing great and glorious work, not only for his mission, but for his country. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of St. Albans having to leave, tho chair was taken by Admiral Gibson. The Rev. C. P. Wilson, a member of tho mission, spoke of tho necessity existing for central schools.

The Rev. 0. W. Howard, another missionary, gave a description of the work of the mission. In heathen districts men would com© and watch the missionaries and the boys, and soo the lives they lived. If they saw them live in happiness, peace, and contentment more than they could pet in the bush, they would ask for teachers. If. on the other hand, the mission's foundations were weak, they would have nothing to do with it. Further problems were standing out in Melanesia. One of tho great problems had to do with traders. In the Inst few years a large company had been floated with a capital of something like half a million. There were a number of little plantations with 200 or 300 boys stationed thereon with a .white man. In not a single one of those station* was the mission able to do anything for the spiritual welfare of the hundreds of natives employed.,. That work had to be done. It was difficult, it was dangerous to speak about the traders in th*» South Pacific*. But many of the men in the South Pacifio were men who had sunk. Some of them could sink no deeper, perhaps, but none were utterly bad, ahd every chance should be taken to keep alive the spark of true life in their hearts." Then the missionaries should be better housed. Ho had been used fo class tho house* under two heads—" do;? kennels" and " horse boxes." What they wanted also was another bishop, who should devote his whole time to the Solomon Islands. 'It would be an enormous relief to.the present overworked bishop, who. he was afraid, would ltd met at Norfolk Inland with a statement from the Bank of .New Zealand that there was a debt of £5700. and that, credit was stopped. That was not fair to a man like Bishop Wilson, who was full of f-saerifW. (Applause.) Canon Still, proposing a vote of thanks to the chairman, said the natives of the South Pacific often got their first, ideas of justioe from British naval officers. As to the debt, of the mission, he hoped it was not so i?reat. as had been stated, and that, might arise through the treasurer in fl'>n gland heint? 13.000 miles away from the treasurer in New Zealand. One reason for the debt was, no doubt, the Bishop's faith, not. only in tho can.-*, but in his friends and supporters of the mission.