FEWER MISSIONARIES

Taranaki Daily News, 9 December 1931, Page 9

FEWER MISSIONARIES

EFFECT OF DEPRESSION. WORK IN PACIFIC ISLANDS.. - Missionary activities in the islands of J the Pacific are being jeopardised on account of the world depression, according to the Rev. F. Lade, president-genepal>: of the Methodist Church of Australasia, who is returning to Sydney by the Sonoma after a tour of inspection of the mission field in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. On the arrival of the Sonoma at Auckland on Friday Mr. Lade said that while missionary activities were still" operat- - ing successfully, they were feeling .the weight of their problems seriously and, owin'* to the economies practised in Australia and the difficulties faced by many members of the mother Church in the Commonwealth, a number of the agents had been withdrawn from the mission “That is a very unfortunate state of affairs,” said Mr. Lade. “This is not the time for reducing staffs as far as the mission field is concerned. The native Church has not yet reached thp stage when it should have full autonomy ; and the guidance of the European' mis.- ■ sionary is still very essential. . “These island groups need not only, devoted missionaries, but white men jn every- walk of life who can set, these primitive peoples theX, highest ideals of character. It is tp' beregret-j. ted that, the ideal, which the missionary strives to put before them does riot nhjL satisfactory illustration on the Tpart <n-. many of the Europeans in secular walks of life. It may be ,! an unpleasant thing to say, but I am convinced it needs saying.” Mr. Lade said he had been greatly impressed with the manifest gratitude displayed by the natives for all that had been done for them by the missionaries, whose educational work, in the broad sense of the term, was undoubtedly of the first importance., .It was pleasing to note tbe high opiniop. in which the Fijian was held in ’the eyes of the white man.