New Hebrides Evils Denounced by Bishop

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 639, 16 April 1929, Page 1

New Hebrides Evils Denounced by Bishop

“WORST IN WORLD” CONDOMINIUM CONDEMNED IN order to reach the southern part of his diocese the Right Rev. F. M. Molyneux, Bishop of Melanesia, had to travel via Sydney and Auckland. The Bishop arrived by the Ulimaroa this morning, after spending five days in Sydney, and will sail by the Southern Cross on Saturday for Norfolk Island and the New Hebrides. “The only way to reach these corners of my diocese at this time of the year is via Sydney and Auckland,” he said this morning. He will ordain three or four natives to the ministry in the New Hebrides.

The much-disputed condominium exists in the bishop’s diocese, and he criticises this joint control very severely. Working among the natives there he is in a position to do this, as be sees frequent instances of mismanagement in the New Hebrides. “The condominium is a beautiful law on paper, but there is no one to carry it out,” said the bishop this morning, on the Ulimaroa, “What practically amounts to -‘black-birding’ still goes on as in the old days, and there is traffic In liquor among the natives.

“The recruiter buys poisonous liquor for a few shillings and sells it to the natives at an enormous profit.” The bishop said that the chief police officer on the island of Opa confessed to him that things were out of hand and that he could do nothing. He blamed the French traders for what went on—not the natives. “I don’t think there can be a worse form of Government in the world,” the bishop remarked. “Anything would be better.” He admitted that the condominium made the life of the missioner very difficult in the New Hebrides. Bishop Molyneux said that Sister Margaret and Sister Gwen, who have been working in India, will sail by the Southern Cross to start education work in the Solomons. This is a new departure in the diocese.