MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20561, 12 March 1935, Page 10

MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Work in Madagascar and India. WOMEN GIVE ADDRESSES. At a public meeting arranged yesterday afternoon by the women’s auxiliary of the London Missionary Society, and held in connection with the Congregational Union Assembly, addresses were given by Miss A. E. Brockway, formerly a L.M.'S. worker in Madagascar, and Miss Jean Begg, national secretary of the \ oung Women’s Christian Association in India. MrS R. J. Crawford presided over a large attendance. Miss Brockwa3' said that her father and mother had started the London Missionary Society’s work in Madagascar in 1871. The heathen queen of the island had died, and, her persecutions being discontinued, Christianity was able to make progress. From one small station, the work spread rapidly. Unfortunately, when the French took control of the island, their Government introduced many harmful influences. Christianity among the natives received a severe set-back, and it was only recently, when the French Government had handed over to the society the control of its leper station, that the mission was able to continue its work with effectiveness. Miss Brockway made an appeal to those present to assist in the maintenance of this work, saying that presented a valuable opportunity for extending the mission’s services. Miss Begg spoke of the Y.W.C.A.’s work in India, Burma and Ceylon. The big city memberships of the association, she said, consisted mostly of Anglo-Indians of the better, educated class. The work of the branches was much the same as it was in New Zealand. So far, she continued, little had been done in the direction of linking up all classes of India’s enormously diverse population. Only a million out of more than 100,000,000 women were Christians. Some thousands, however, -were educated women, and through their co-opera-tion, the work could spread. The Y.W.C.A. was also doing good work through its student associations, where women were trained and educated. The association came into close contact with the various missions, and was able to do much to assist them. The problem of teaching Christianity in India was to show the Mohammedan, Buddhist, or believer in any other of India’s fifty-odd faiths that Christianity had more to offer them. The speakers were thanked by acclamation, and it was decided to make a grant from the offertory towards the work in Madagascar.