POLYNESIAN MISSION

Taranaki Daily News, 27 April 1934, Page 9

POLYNESIAN MISSION

BISHOP'S APPEAL FOR HELP < ~7 WORK LN ISLANDS OUTLINED. DIFFICULTIES OF ISOLATION. The Rt. Rev. L. S. Kempthorne, Anglican Bishop of Polynesia, gave an address at St. Mary’s Church, New Plymouth, last night in regard to the work of the Church in his diocese. Ten years ago, said his Lordship, he visited New Zealand to tell what his first acquaintance with his diocese had revealed of the work being done and to be done. He had found in Fiji two priests, both old men and anxious to retire, and one layman carrying out all the ministrations of the Church in that island. In Tonga a Chinese priest carried on a school for Tongan children. New Zealand and Australia had promised assistance for the work, and from England help had already been received. In the ten years that had elapsed since that visit the work had certainly extended. In Suva (Fiji) in place of the old priest there was now a priest, two schools and two lay readers. The schools were foi' Chinese and .Melanesian children. Tire Melanesian school' was supervised by an Englishwoman teacher with two brothers from the Melanesian brotherhood. The children came from the villages nearby and some of them lived in the hostel of the school. The Chinese school was conducted by a well-trained man teacher who had been teaching for many years. He had as his assistant a Chinese woman who was a member of the Church. The Church and the schools formed the maim methods of making contact with the natives and Chinese. In the Church regular ministrations were maintained for Europeans, and it had to ,be remembered that most of the Europeans, in the islands held positions of responsibility. . Seventy miles away, at Levuka, the old priest had retired and the post staffed by men who went there for a term of three years and then returned to their former dioceses. One man had come from New Zealand and one from Australia, and the present incumbent was from England. At Levuka they had a beautiful little church building of concrete, and there was a congregation of from 80 to 90 Melanesians from the villages near or from other islands, all of whom were looking to the Church to give them guidance. WORK IN HUGE PARISH. On the other side of Fiji, from Suva there was a huge parish covering i 150 miles where on:t clergyman did his best to provide ministrations for the scattered Europeans in his district. There was another centre in Fiji where there was a small" church and a small school. The priest there was alsb the schoolmaster, and he had four Indian teachers with him, who had begun to pass the Governinent examinations for certificated teachers. Two miles away there was' a school for girls under ,the control of an Auckland lady, whose patience and perseverance over many difficulties had succeeded in establishing the school where now over 50 scholars attended. The bishop was hoping to hear at any time of a third school being established, for the schools were the main centres of work. The mission still needed more help in occupying the field at its disposal. Forty miles away there was a Government school, and there was also an Indian school, but those five schools had to supply education for 4000 children. The Church would be given the sole opportunity of carrying .on education if it showed it was willing and able to do the work. The mission had undertaken the schools in the north part of Fiji, as it was the easiest way of making contact with the peoples. In spite of occasional opposition from Indians because of the Church’s “foreign faith;” more than once Indians had agreed that education with religious teaching was better than education without it. They recognised that the Church taught of Jesus Christ and for Him even Indians had honour and respect. The former Chinese priest at Tonga had returned to his home at Rarotonga and his position at Tonga was filled by a man from Wellington, who had succeeded in getting a church built as a memorial to Bishop Willis, who was the first bishop , to visit the diocese 30 years ago. The old church building was now used as a schoolroom. The priest and two teachers conducted the school, of which the official reports were that the teaching there was as good as any in the kingdom. NEEDS OF SAMOA. In Samoa, although a New Zealand bishop said nearly 50 years ago that there were enough members of the Church ox England to warrant a chaplain being stationed, it was only two years ago that a clergyman had settled there. He was doing his. best to provide ministration for people and their descendants who had remained loyal to their Church, though they had received little evidence of their Church’s care for them. The Samoan chaplain was making an appeal for the purchase of a suitable property. It had already been leased and part of the building on it made available as a church, and it was hoped to complete the purchase within two years. Last year the bishop left New Zealand to go to Rarotonga, where he gave during four weeks the only ministrations which members of the Church of England there had received for two years. This year he was proceeding to Nauru and Ocean Islands for that purpose. It must be remembered, continued his Lordship, that much of the mission’s work was in ministering to scattered members of their own race. Their’s was indirect as well as direct missionary labour. If their members were neglected they had to worship in an unaccustomed manner and often with peoples young as Christians and with not much in the way of Christian tradition. Yet these were Europeans usually holding positions of responsibility, whose lives would be patterns for others, and whose example was accounted the example of Christian people. It was hard enough for people in New Zealand with all the privileges of the Church to show a Christian example, but they could see how much more difficult it was for people living in isolation. It was the duty of the Church to seek to supply its scattered members with the ministrations they needed. His Lordship concluded with an appeal for help in order that the mission might do the work that lay before it fully and adequately and'thus show the Church’s care for the islands and its belief in the strength of faith in Jesus Christ.