MELANESIAN MISSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14250, 22 December 1909, Page 8

MELANESIAN MISSION.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, November 12. The annual meeting of the Melanesian Mission was held on Friday at th.o Church House, Westminster, the Bishop of St. Albans presiding Referring to the Solomon Islands the chairman said the arch-deacon-designate was a new appointment, and it was necessary to have some head for the work there. There was reason to believe that the appointment of fin archdeacon would meet with abundant response among the natives. The Bishop of Melanesia told them that the increased spiritual life among many of the converts implied a greater responsibility on the part of those at Home, and if the work was to go on and develop they would want an additonal income of £3000 a year for carrying on that work. Dr. Rivers, F.R.S., who spent some time last year with the Bishop of Melanesia on the Southern Cross, spoke of the work from a medical and anthropological aspect. He had been strongly impressed, he said, by the very urgent need of men. A great change had come over the Solomon Islands in roc«nt years owing to the new settlement of Europeans. There was a need for more civilisation in the islands. Speaking of the medical mission work, he said that the great value of this had been sQen in other missions