TO SAVE THE NATIVES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 673, 27 May 1929, Page 14

TO SAVE THE NATIVES

METHODIST MISSIONS APPEAL DANGER OF COMMERCIALISM “We cannot without guilt leave these Solomon Islanders alone, for commercialism is not leaving them alone. God pity them if the white man, with his gun, his gin-bottle and his European diseases gets there first." These were the words of the Rev. J. F. Gfcidie, president of the New Zealand Methodist Conference, in a sermon in the Pitt Street Methodist Church last evening. Mr. Goldie has launched an appeal for £20,000 for the extension of mission work in the Solomons. Outlining the cause of degeneracy among the natives he said he was no foe of legitimate commercial enterprise, but the introduction of foreign capital into the islands before anything else was done was not beneficial to the natives. A very different state of affairs resulted when the natives were taught to use their own powers and develop the country themselves. The words “black-birder," “trader” and “beachcomber” did not mean much to New Zealand ears, but they had a very real meaning to natives of the Solomons. “These people cannot be let alone," Mr. Goldie continued. “Commercial exploitation is taking place all over the Pacific. Civil authority is being extended everywhere. This is natural, for it is needed. I am not here to condemn Government officers. I thank God for some good men among them, but there are others —arrogant, heady young fellows—who are no credit to their flog and their king." NEED FOR CHRISTIANITY

Mere education would never change the hearts and lives of the natives. Unless the foundation of Christian character were laid in the process, education only put a dangerous weapon into their hands. The mission was out to establish a self-supporting, self-propagating church. This would not be built on uninstructed savagery and so education and religious teaching went hand in hand. “Left to themselves the natives of these islands are lost, not only to God, but also to health, happiness and goodness,” stated Mr. Goldie. “I say this without hesitation alter 27 years’ personal knowledge of the work of Christian missionaries and of governments from Tonga to New Guinea. Only a man who has visited places untouched by missionary effort could realise what savagery meant. In the Solomons about the year 1905 I met the Australian poet, Victor J. Baley. Baley had gone there hoping to find such happy native communities as those Louis Beck had described. He confessed himself sadly disillusioned, and on his return to Sydney he published in the ‘Bulletin’ a satirical poem, each verse of which ended, ‘You're a liar, Louis Becke.’ The fact was that Becke had no experience of groups where missionaries had never been." In his own experience, said Mr. Goldie, he bad seen naked, painted, head-hunting savages truly and really transformed into peaceful, industrious and happy Christian men. The mission combined religious, medical, educational and industrial work. It aimed at giving the natives a new way of life, not merely education and Government regulations. A native student, Nathan Kera, gave a short address, through Mr. Goldie as interpreter, explaining why he had come at his own cost to visit New Zealand. Another student, Belshazzar Gina, sang a hymn in English very tunefully.