MISSIONS IN INDIA

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1935, Page 7

MISSIONS IN INDIA

LANTERN LECTURE GIVEN. WIDE SCOPE OF ACTIVITIES. Illuminating scenes of Indian cities, villages ■ and mountains were shown an interested audience at the lantern lecture on mission work in Northern India given by the Rev. R. L. Gray, of the New Zealand Presbyterian Mission in St. Andrew’s Hall, New Plymouth, last night. In his accompanying address he told of crowded towns and primitive villages. The slides depicted mountain settlements perched where it seemed only an eagle could rest, and dusty towns of the plans. Mission work in North India entailed more than the preaching of Christianity, explained Mr. Gray. Missionaries guided the people socially, economically and politically. This was not an easy task in the thickly populated district worked by the New Zealand mission. In a district only 75 miles long and 38 miles wide, there were 700,000 people of every caste and creed.

Another branch of the mission work was the medical, probably the most important. The hospital work was made extremely difficult by the caste system, which made necessary a large staff. In curing cataract one of the curses of India, the medical men did valuable work. Eighty to ninety per cent, bf the operations were successful in restoring the eyesight of those afflicted. He impressed upon his audience the necessity of the work being carried bn and showed them that “a missionary did more than sit under a banana palm and talk.”