POLYNESIAN MISSIONS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4208, 15 September 1874, Page 3

POLYNESIAN MISSIONS.

The annual meeting of the New Hebrides Auxiliary to the British and Foreign Bible Society was held recently on board the mission vessel in the harbor of Anelgauhat, Aneityum. At the meeting it was stated that the society had already printed the New Testament in Aneltyumese, and had agreed to print the Old Testament now entirely translated and in process of revision for the press. This latter portion has been the work of three missionaries, the Revs. Messrs. Geddie, Inglis, and Copeland, though the chief part of the labor has devolved upon Mr, Inglis, owing to the death of Hr. Geddie, the father of the mission. The society has also printed a Gospel and the Book of Genesis in Erromangan, and St. Mark in Fatese ; and the auxiliary in New South Wales has rendered good service also in printing lately the Book of Genesis in Fatese. Other portions of Scripture are ready in Fotunese, Aniwan, and Tamiese, and progress is being made in rendering the Scriptures into the polyglot tongues of the group, in which there are at least twenty different languages. There are twelve missionaries on the islands, and the late lamented Bishop Patteson frequently visited several of the islands not otherwise reached by missionaries. Numbers of young men belonging to these were taken by him to New Zealand and Norfolk Island, and taught to read and instructed in the Bishop could speak at least six of the languages, and he prepared grammars and a few translations in these. There are still twenty islands without resident missionaries. The Rev. Hr, Steel (then on a visit to the islands and the mission) being called upon, addressed the meeting. He referred to the work done by missionaries to promote philological research and to carry out the objects of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He showed that during the last half century the whole Bible had by the efforts of such men been translated into thirty-nine languages, the New Testament into thirty-five, and portions of Scripture into forty-eight—-thus making a total of 122 languages, all beyond the pale of Christendom fifty years ago. The circulation in these tongues during that period had been 10,000,000 of copies. He urged the continuance of the work of translation, of printing, and of circulation, and still more of reading and obeying the Word of God. It was a singular circumstance, that the meeting was held on board the mission ship, but amidst so many tongues throughout the group of islands, there was no more fitting place. If the Word were the law on board the vessel, it would deserve the encomiums bestowed upon the first mission vessel, the Huff, that sailed to the South Seas, which, when in the port of Canton, by the good conduct of officers and crew, obtained the name of the “Ten Commandments ” from the English sailors there at the time.