CHARLES GODDEN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 26, Issue 12, 1 December 1936, Page 5

CHARLES GODDEN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

The writer of these notes remembers, some 40 years ago, Bishop Cecil Wilson talking to the school about Rev. Charles Godden's murder m Aoba. Now Bishop Baddeley. has the joy of beginning at Lolowai, Aoba, the new Goddeh Memorial Hospital.

Sister McKenzie, who finished her training m the Karitane Hospital, Dunedin, and who has been till now on the staff of the hospital at Fauabu, is now to take charge of this new work. "The Aobans are descendants of the Polynesian sea-rovers of centuries ago. But also Aoba is interesting to anthropologists because of the remnant of a dwarf people who still reside m the mountains. The Bishop of Melanesia, when he was last m Sydney, remarked that a handful of these people still remained, and -presumably they are the descendants of an even earlier culture. Mr. Godden died at the hands of a Melanesian who had worked as a lad m Queensland during the indentured labour period. He returned to the island consumed with a bloodthirsty desire for revenge. Mr Godden was walking through the bush on his way to baptize some children m a village when he was attacked by this man and killed. Conditions on Aoba are, however, vastly different to-day. Memories of the nefarious coloured labour traffic are forgotten. Anglican, Roman Catholic and Church of Christ missionaries have been at work among the natives for some time.