NEW HEBRIDES CONTROL,

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18708, 14 May 1924, Page 12

NEW HEBRIDES CONTROL,

BRITISH , RULE DESIRED.

PRESBYTERY RESOLUTION.

The question of reform in the' government of the New Hebrides is a matter to which the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand has given careful attention since the last Assembly, and a petition to Parliament is now being circulated, • urging the importance of bringing the group under sole British control. The Foreign Missions Committee, in | a letter considered by the Auckland Presbytery last evening, states that the Coudominum has failed to maintain law and order in the group, and to protect the natives from oppression. , ; ' The Presbyterian Church is particularly interested in the matter, by reason of the anticipated possibility that the islands may pass into undivided French control, with the accompanying possijbility_ of the ultimate extinction of the Presbyterian missions which have carried on work, in the New Hebrides- fot the past 70 years." In a resolution expressing the ,oon< viction ''that present conditions in the New Hebrides constitute a' grave menace to the life and well-being of the natives arid a scandal to civilisation;'' Presbytery urged, the Government to take whatever steps are possible to ensure the ending of the. Condominium, and the bringing of the islands under sole n British control, members of the congregation, and electors : gen elf all v, also being urged to support the petition now in circulation. 1 ;