PACIFIC ISLANDS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 12

PACIFIC ISLANDS.

SSTURN OF MISSIONARIES / HI VIEW OF WORK. AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, December 22. The missionary yacht Southern Cross returned from a three months’ tour of (ho Islands to-day, and berthed at Queen’s wharf. Among the missionaries who came to Auckland on holiday is Dr C. E. Fox, head master of All Hallows School, Pawa Ugi, Solomon Islands. Dr Fox has been on missionary work in the Solomons for 25 years, and it is four years since he was last on a holiday in New Zealand. “Yes, I have seen a great change in the Solomons since I first went there, although there has not been any great pro gress since the war,” said Dr Fox. “A now people has come to the Solomons since the war, and we are not going ahead now as we were. There is no encouragement to the planters. The Government—we are under the Fijian Government, which is a disadvantage, as we are not sufficiently in touch with Fiji—buys the land from the natives and leases it to planters, but on such terms that it cannot be profitably developed. There is no cannibalism in the Solomons now. There was plenty of it, and plenty of head-hunting when I first went there, and indeed, oven up to 12 years ago. Then it was not safe for a white man to walk there. Now you can walk inland anywhere on any of the islands in perfect safety. “The ship made her usual round as far north as Ysabel, in the Solomons,” said Dr Fox. “Bishop Steward was left at All Hallows School, at Pawa Ugi. where he will remain for six months, and where a house has been built for him. On the return journey of the Southern Cross all the islands were visited and the Rev. G. West and Mr Francis, both trained at St. John’s College, Tamaki, were put down on one of the reef islands close to Santa Cruz to make a fresh beginning there. Santa Cruz is greatly depopulated, but in the reefs the outlook is more promising. „ Taumaki, an outlying Polynesian settlement, was also visited, and also Cherry Island and Tikopia. At the latter the population—pure Polynesian—is now all schooling, and growing so fast that the island will soon be too small to support it. There are great numbers of children—about equal numbers of each sexVanikolo, where the Kauri Timber Company is working was visited, a Sunday being spent there. An evening service was held on board to which about 30 of the white population came. Mr Parr, a Hamilton carpenter, was put down here. Ine white men here are New Zealanders and Australians. The Burns Philp steamer, Makambo, calls regularly from Sydney, and there is a Government representative and doctor. The houses of the white people have now been built out on the coral reel, wherfe the mosquitoes are less troublesome, but hurricanes may be dangerous. Ibere is said to be enough kauri to keep the mills employed on Vanikolp for 60 years, and kauri has also been discovered on the reel islands nearby and on San ' Vanikolo is quite a growing white settle- ““ the Torres, the first part of the condominium touched at, the population does not now seem to be decreasing, m spite cf the promiscuous recruiting by smail cutters with native captains, for French plantations The condominium Government scarcely pretends to govern the native. For example, a man on Vanuaiava, m the Banks Group, lately killed his wife, but cannot be punished lor it. lf f n y\i® murdered another in front of the Vila courthouse nothing could be don• • J offences against white men are punishable There is talk of the condominium being ended by a division, England taking the Southern Islands, including Vila, T® capital, and France the Northern Group including the Bank and Torres and Segond Channel in Sasito. which is the best harbour in the whole group. The Presbyterian missionaries work in the Southern and the Melanesian Mission in the Northern P 0rtl0 "- “Bishop Molyneux was set down at Lolowai Opa, where a college for native teachers is being opened. The bishop’s house is not completed, but he is living temp'irardy m that of the Rev. and Mrs Godfrey, wno have come up on leave. They touched a. Noumea in New Caledonia to coal. During the weather was experienced th Of Ug th°e U missionaries who have come up it is a coincidence that all are fromi Ne; Zealand o and the three priests on boaru ri pVIJSTOfA of All Hallows 001100 P„bL"siKmon"' .h= E.v, a G0d1,., (to be in charge of the new cofiege m the New Hebrides), and the Rev. C. Mountford (Gaudalcanar, Solomon Islands), are all old students of St. John’s. Tamaki Mim Hum. head mistress of the Torgill Girls bcnooi, who his done nearly 30 wears of m Melanesia, and Mrs Godfrey Satchell, of Christchurch, are also New Zealanders.