BRITISH NEW GUINEA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 44, 1 November 1900, Page 29

BRITISH NEW GUINEA.

British New Guinea (says the London correspondent of the Melbourne Advocate) is next door to Australia, but little or no news from this interesting dependency of yours ever finds its way into the Melbourne or Sydney papers. You have to pet it all the way from London. The annual report on British New Guinea, which has been written by the local Chief Justice and ActingGovernor, Sir F. P Winter, an old Victorian, and a member of the well-known pioneer squatting family around Ballarat and the Western district, has just been circulated by the Colonial Office, and it contains a considerable amount of valuable information. Australian Catholics, I am afraid, have no adequate idea of the splendid work that is being done in British New Guinea under formidable climatic difficulties by the Fathers and Sisters of the Sacred Hf-art. Sir F. P. Winter pays them a very handsome eulogy in his report. He expresses his admiration of their energetic labors and hia pleasure at seeing the strong additions that have been made to their fctaff, alike in the number, the character, and the abilities of the members. They are occupying new districts and establishing stations in the far interior, doing work that, to quote the compliinentiry language of the Acting-Governor ' would have done credit to experienced and well-equipped explorers. 1 They rely entirely on their own hands for labor and on the neighboring forests for material for the construction of their churches, Bchools, and dwelling-houses. Sir F. P. Winter concludes his review of the work of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart in British New Guinea aa follows : — ' They are pious, simple-hearted Christian workers, who lead hard, laborious lives in a cheerful spirit, and without expectation of reward in this world.'