PRESBYTERIAN FOREIGN MISSIONS COMMITTEE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18850, 1 May 1923, Page 3

PRESBYTERIAN FOREIGN MISSIONS COMMITTEE.

FAREWELL SOCIAL. A very pleasant gathering of members and friends of the Foreign Missions Committee of the Presbyterian Church was held on Friday last in the Stuart Hall, Frederick street, to do honour to the Rev. Professor Hewitson and Mrs Hewitson, the Rev. A. and Mrs Don, and to the Rev. H. H. and Mrs Barton. The convener, the Rev. G. H. Jupp. presided, and die meeting was opened with the Doxology and prayer. Mr Jupp heartily welcomed all P 1 ’ es P?' : ’ making special reference to Mr and Mrs Barton, who had recently returned from their visit to our mission fields in China and India, to the other guests of the evening, including the Rsv F. G. and Mrs Bowie, of the New Hebrides. . He then presented to Professor Hewitson and to the Ref A. Don handsomely engrossed and bound copies of the minutes adopted by the lost General Assembly m regard to their services as convener and secretary respectively of the i oreign Missions Committee ~ Referring to Mr Don, the convener said that he had’ been connected with the- foreign mission work of the Chuich since 1882. He had gone to China in 1879 to learn the language; in ISB2 ho had settled in Riverton to minister to the Chinese there, and in 1886 he had been transferred to Lawrence, where he had been ordained as a missionary. He had spent many years among the Chinese in New Zealand. Since then he had been foreign missions secretary for nine years Iho highest tribute that could be paid to any one was that given by the Chinese formerly resident in New Zealand, on the occasion of Mr Don’s recent visit to China—“Oh, is it Yeso (Jesus) Don?”—the Mr Don who’ had preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. , Referring to Professor Hewitson, Mr Jupp said that after 21 years of service as convener he had set a standard difficult to bo reached by those who came after him. Mrs Hewitson had been a _ tower of strength to him, and his niece, Miss Winnie Rule, who for years had been his typiate, had rendered invaluable service. Professor Hewitson acknowledged with very great gratitude the kind words spoken by the chairman, and endorsed so heartily by the meeting. Our Church held an honourable position among the churches -of Australia and New Zealand in regard to the foreign missions enterprise. FAREWELL TO REV. A. DON. For this part of the function the missionaries themselves were largely responsible, among whom were men and women who were the very salt of the earth • to the committee and the P.W.M.U., who had administered their Foreign Mission affairs. The Chairman said over had, or ever would have.' a more faithful servant than Mr Don. Their relations as convener and secretary had been exceedingly happy: and he felt for Mr Don respect and warm affection. To Mr W. H. Adams, who had been a member of the committee for 21 years, 1 fell the pleasant duty of presenting to _Mr and Mrs Don two comfortable easy chairs from the committee. The speaker said that ho had known Mr Don for 38 years, since the days of the old “Presbyterian,” and he was as keen on commas and semi-colons in those days as he now; and, as one of the printers said recently, “He hasn’t come to a full stop yet.” Mr Adams had been in Chinese dwellings in the neighbourhood of Cromwell, and had noticed how the faces .-of the Chinese lit up when he was introduced to them as a friend of Mr. Don. Undoubtedly Mr Don’s work, had made it much easier for our missionaries in the Canton Villages. _ Mr Adams referred to Mr Don’s work in the Knots and Puzzles page of the Outlook, by means of which he had not only taught the young to search the Scriptures, but that what they did had bo be done well and .perfectly, even to the crossing of a “t” and the dotting of an “i.’’ No man had done more to lift up the Outlook than Mr Don. ; Mr Adams concluded by referring; to the help Mrs Don had rendered her husband throughout the years. In thanking the committee on behalf of . Airs Don and himself, _Mr Don remarked . that ’he hardly recognised himself _in the descriptions of his eulogists. He wished he could come up to 49.7 per cent, of what had been expressed iin the speeches. “You have put A.D. on the cover of the volumo,” ho said, in reference to the bound cony < of the Assembly’s minute,, “but you havordt* put what year it is!”—(Laughter.) Ilia farewell had been a Ipng-drawn-out one, but it was none the easier on that account. He was saying farewell to Dunedin —far and away the most beautiful ■ city he had _ ever seen ! —to 4 \e Foreign Missions < Committee,, a body o.'' men and women with whom it had been u great honour and privilege to ' work. He had been • nine years Foreign Missions Secretary, and he would rather be F.M.S for another nine years than Moderator of the General Assembly—for only one! The Foreign Mission work was entering upon a new phase in India and the East generally. To be in the* great .conference at Shanghai a year ago was to him like being in a new world. The Chinese, for instance, were demanding their own translations of the Bible—done by Chinese. Throughout, the East they were aiming at a truly indigenous Church. The old patriarchal order of things had passed away and must give place to the fraternal. Mr Don paid a striking tribute to tha retiring convener,. Rev. Professor Hewitson. He had had the privilege of meeting many of the most notable missionary leaders, but it was his conviction, which others shared, that the convener, if he had been in a great country like America, instead of in a little country like New Zealand, would have been in the very forefront of missionary leaders. During the evening songs were sung by Miss Rule and Miss Astbury, and a pianoforte duet was rendered by Miss Gladys .tlamank and Miss Astbury. After supper a most enjoyable evening closed with worship, in which Professor Hewitson led the prayers of the company.