FROM BUSH TO PULPIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 7

FROM BUSH TO PULPIT.

CULTURED ABORIGINAL. AN AUSTRALIAN MISSIONER. During a tour of West A uslralia and' South Australia, from which he returned to Sydno/recently, the Rev. J. S Needham, chairman of the Australian Board of Missions, met Mr. James Noble, a fullblooded aboriginal, who has become one of the most notable mission workers in Australia. Mr. Noble will visit Sydney in July or August on mission work, and will probably bo ordained a deacon of the Anglican Church. Referring to this mission worker yesterday, Mr. Needham said that Mr.. Noble was one of the finest specimens of physical manhood he had seen. "He is about 46 or 47 years of age, tall and upright, and absolutely one of the best bushmen, white or black, I have ever met," Mr. Needham added. " He" 1 is a splendid cricketer, boxer, farm worker, and horseman, and, above all, he is an exceptionally fine Christian. He was born at Normanton (Queensland), and was in Sydney in 1900, later being educated at the Scone Grammar School. Since then he has been at the .Yarrabah, Mitchell River, Roper River, and Forrest River mission stations. He is a splendid speaker, his simple earnestness being most impressive."