OBITUARY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9630, 10 April 1917, Page 3

OBITUARY

REV. PR. GEORGE BROWN. A NOTED MISSIONARY. A Press Association message from Syde ncy records tho death of Dr. George Brown, president of the Australasian General Methodist Conference. He died in his sleep from influenza in his 82nd year. His death ends the career of one of tho most famous, intropid and sue. cossful pioneer missionaries of tho South'* orn Seas. Dr. Brown was a worldwide authority on Polynesian ethnology and habit®. He loaves a unique and invaluable collection of island curios. Dr. Brown was born at Durham, Eng. land, in 1835, and arrived in New Zealand in 1855- After five years ho wont ! to Australia. Ho spent fifteen, years * in Samoa and was appointed general t secretary of foreign missions in 3887, a position ho filled with distinguished ability, forty-eight years of his Bfo were spent in the_ Southern Soas. The new missions to Now Guinea, New Brl< tain, aud tho Solomon Islands; were established by a band of missionaries each led bv Dr. Brown, whoso courage ami sagacity contributed largely to the eao« cess achieved. Tho late Dr. Brown had many exciting adventures in the Islands. Perhaps the most stirring of al* was connected with the massacre of Christian native teachers in New Britain in April, 1878, and the subsequent punitive expedition which he led against the cannibal chief Tariiiy and the natives concerned with him in tho massacre. It is recalled that when, after a few years of ministerial work in Now Zealand, he offered for missionary service, the objection was raised that be was too meek and mild and ladylike a i young person and hardly suitable for tho mission field. This comment sound® strange in view of a long and perilous jj life spent in the forepart of tho battle against savagery. -