A VETERAN MISSIONARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21537, 8 January 1932, Page 8

A VETERAN MISSIONARY

EVENTFUL LIFE IN NEW HEBRIDES A WELL-EARNED RETIREMENT (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, January 7. Retired from his island missionary duties after an extraordinary eventuful life of 54 years in the New Hebrides, the veteran Presbyterian missionary, the Rev. O. Michelsen, now 87 years of age, arrived by the Morinda to take up his residence in Auckland, His lifelong sojourn in the Islands commenced in the days of cannibalism of which he narrowly escaped being a victim and ended 'with the natives dedicated to peaceful pursuits and a life of Christianity. When Mr Michelsen went to the island of Tongoa in 1879 he was the first white man to settle on its inhospitable shores, and he had not been there long_ when trouble commenced to brew, following an unfortunate remark made to a native chief by a white man who had visited the island previously. K Wait till the missionaries come. You won’t be allowed to keep more than one wife then/' the trouble-maker told one of the many polygamous chiefs. No greater challenge could have been uttered, and when Mr Michelsen arrived to spread the Gospel he found himself the object of the utmost enmity. For the first 18 months he lived on the island alone. Then he returned to New and married, taking his wife back with him to the island. No sooner had they landed than the chief whose harem had been threatened inaugurated a vendetta. Nine men were despatched by the chief with orders to kill the missionary, but they were intercepted by some friendly natives who killed and ate four ot the wonld-he assassins, Mr and Mrs Michelsen fled to the other side of the island and succeeded in obtaining sanctuary with a tribe that was more friendly disposed towards the two white people. Tn the earlier days Mr Michelsen founded the South Dunedin Presbyterian Church, in which connection it is interesting to note that he was present at the church’s jubilee celebrations in 1930.