CHILDREN’S PURCHASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27043, 30 March 1949, Page 4

CHILDREN’S PURCHASE

MISSIONARY SOCIETY SHIP JOHN WILLIAMS VI TO BERTH AT EASTER Sunday school children in Dunedin will be able to see the missionary ship they helped to buy when it arrives here on Good Friday. The ship, the John Williams VI, which will make Dunedin her first Dominion port of call is owned by the London Missionary Society, and was bought with contributions from children throughout the Empire. She will be open for inspection by the public on Easter Saturday, and will later continue on a tour of New Zealand ports. She is destined for missionary service in the South Seas. Christened by Princess Margaret at Tower Pier. London, in 1948, the John Williams is the sixth of a line of missionary ships to carry the name of a pioneer South Seas missionary. The missionary was killed by cannibals on Erromanga in 1839, and the ship will assist in the work which was begun by him. After visiting ports in the Britisti Isles the vessel has made a tour of Australia. Her master is Captain Stanton Page, who served in the British Navy during the war. He assisted in piloting the American Fleet to the attack on Tarawa in the North Gilberts. The first officer is Mr E. V. Ward and the ship’s crew are natives of the Gilbert Islands. During the tour of New Zealand ports Mrs F. J. Kay. wife of the Dominion secretary of the London Missionary Society, will be the hostess on the ship. The host will k>e the Rev M G Check, formerly minister of the United Congregational Church in Dunedin.