MELANESIAN MISSION.

Colonist, Volume XLI, Issue 9097, 15 February 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

MELANESIAN MISSION.

ST. BARNABAS LADIES' GUILD. INTERESTING ADDRESS BY THE | BISHOP OF MELANESIA. On Jan. 21st afternoon a number of ladies assembled at the Shelbourne street schoolroom, to meet and hear the Bishop of Melanesia, who spoke on women's work in Norfolk Island and Melanesia. His Lordship, after devotion, said he desired to meet the ladies of the Guild who had been working for their Mission. He could not say that the women of Norfolk Island and Melanesia were much down trodden. Of course there was no women's forward movement amongst them, and they had to work as well as the men. He referred to the deplorable practice of infanticide that was carried on on some of the islands, and said a child of the'feminine sex was far more likely to to be "killed than a male. At one island cannibalism was their capital punishment, every man, woman and child having to partake of the flesh of the condemned one. The men and women did not see as much of each other as those of civilised communities, owing to the men keeping apart from the women and living at their Club house. The uncles on the mother's side of tho families arranged the wedding of a girl, nd often the girls had never seen their intended husbands previously. The intended bride] j groom had to give red money and pigs, while the bride had to supply plenty of provisions. As a rule the wives and husbands lived happily together, but the husbands were mostly away at their club houses. The intended bride pretends she does not want to be married and goes and hides away in the bush, then there is ajgreat hunt to. find her. Before sending a native teacher away to another island they generally married him, for the native women proved as good teachers as the men. At Norfolk Island they had 40 or 50 native girls training to 160 men and boys. They would like to get more ""girls. The girls made from 400 to 500 suits of clothes in a year, but a suit consisted of a pair of trousers and a shirt. They greatly needed some white ladies to work in the Islands, but they had not a suitable vessel for their conveyance. Ladies could live in the Islands, and so could anyone if they took care of themselves. In answer to questions, the Bishop stated that red money meant shells obtained in deep water. A native's wealth was reckoned by the number of pigs he possessed ; also his salvation depended on the number of pigs he had k'lled during his lifetime in entertaining his fellows. In the New Hebrides the natives believed in a great Spirit, whom they much feared, but never credited with having any love. In the Solomon Islands the" natives had lost all idea of a great Spirit, and they only believed in the ghosts of their ancestors. The Melanesian Mission had schools upon twenty-five islands. The old class of trader was generally a bad man, but a new class had arisen who were treating the natives properly. When a trader was killed by the natives he very often brought it upon himself. The labor traffic was very carefully looked after by the Queensland authorities. Kidnapping was not resorted to, but the boys were enticed away by promise of good teaching in Queensland, and by bribes of money. Some of the returned laborers from Queensland have come back to the Islands Christians, and are now engaged as teachers by the Mission ; others have come ,back worse iu character than they were before they went to Queensland. Instances had occurred of labor vessels recruiting women, The introduction of rifles among the natives, he thought, had helped to diminish the population ; in fact, in some islands, no man's life was safe without a , rifle. They had now a Mission College built on the site of an old heathen shrine. They had the money for erecting a hospital, having received £300 from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for that purpose. The natives were often troubled with sores, and they needed more medical attention than can fee given them at present. In concluding, tile Bishop thanked the ladies for their attendance, and giving him an opportunity of meeting them. Mrs Mules (President of the Guild), assisted by a number of ladies, dispensed afternoon tea to the company.