A Catholic Mission in New Guinea

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 16, 23 April 1908, Page 11

A Catholic Mission in New Guinea

Miss Beatrice Grimshaw, lady traveller, who has contributed many graphic South, Sea sketches' to|9gthe S.M. Herald,' is now doing New Guinea for that paper. She writes as follows of the Catholic mission! at Yule Island. :— Yule Island, some. 70 miles from Port Moresby, is the headquarters of the Jtoman^. Catholic massion and the residence of the Coadjutor-Bishop^ind Archbishop, as also a number of mission' "Sisters, and a house full of mission Fathers and Brothers. Venturesome and daring in 'the extreme is the work done by these devoted missionaries. Into the far-awas;, unexplored districts of the interior they journey, wading i^fejlS't"deap in marshes full of leeches and haunted"' by aUigatora, crossing great rivers on logs, paddling for days in native- canoes, living for days in lonely cannibal villages, ascending huge mountains never trodden by, any. other white man's foot, rescuing native children stolen for the cooking pot, or thrown out to die in the bush, -and bringing them down to Yule Island to educate in the schools- They are extremely practical and businesslike' in their methods of saving souls,, these blue-robed and white-vailed Sisters, and Fathers who are dressed as often as not i« plain secular garb. The Nuns, on their journeys into the_ interior, ride any Morse that can be got, and some of the Australian Sisters will handle very rough 1 , unbroken steeds, • riding gallantly' over wild and dangerous -country. They do n O t overdress their converts ; at Yule Island you will see this little brown children running about . very lightly clothedi. They teach them handicrafts of various kinds, and insist on English only being spoken in the schools, though many of the missiojn people are French' and Dutch, so that" the little Papuan leaves the island with habits of industry and Rood behavior, and a language a/t has tongue's end which will enable him to make good use of what he has learned. A prettier sight can hardly be imagined than, the great schoolroom of the Sisters' school, with 20 or 30 little brown children, of all ages from 12 or 14 years down to a few w|eeks, in charge of the Sister of the day, who has a busy time of it with' her -big family, feeding, and dressing and teaching and' playing with the merry party all day long. Several of the children have been boughft at various times for a couple of sticks of tobacco from parents who intended to kin them or throw them away as & nuisance. Parental affection is often enough not very highly developed among the Papuans, _a>nd there can be no doubt that a great, waste of infant ?ife takes place from this cause.