PAPUAN CATHOLIC MISSION

New Zealand Tablet, 13 November 1919, Page 34

PAPUAN CATHOLIC MISSION

& -'"■• Rev. Father. A. M. Clauser, M.S.H., - f arrived recently in Australia I 'from ■ Papua, where he has spent the last 17 years in the French: Mission of Our Lady of - the Sacred Heart. -\ Father Clauser, now in Melbourne, is oh his way to France. After -an absence ? of nearly 20 years, he is going to r; see his own native land, Alsace-Lorraine, French again. Besides taking a spell,' the object of his : trip home is to 'find help and more missionaries, for during the las# 15 years the Papuan Catholic Mission, under the administration of his Lordship Dr. Alain G. r de Boismenu, M.S.H., Vicar-Apostolic of British New Guinea, has made immense' progress, and extends now right into the heart of the mountains of "New Guinea. The most beautiful and most promising mission station is just;-being erected, at an altitude of 6300 ft, in the district of Ononghe. This district is 10 days distant from the coast, "l and was first discovered some years ago by Father Clauser himself, who was the first white man to visit these cannibals. Father Clauser has done a good deal of exploring during the last 10 years, and has come to the conclusion that the interior of New Guinea is fairly populated, and there is almost indefinite scope for mission* work : amongst these tribes, who are so well disposed towards the missionaries. :..■:.■:.,