IN THE SOLOMONS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 25, 19 November 1943, Page 5

IN THE SOLOMONS

BISHOP BADDELEY'S TALK

LARGE WIIAKATAXK

AUDIKXC-i:

The Parish Hall was taxed In capacity to accommodate the crowd which gathered there last Monday • evening to hear the Bishop ol' Melanesia. the Rt. Rev. Walter Baddeley,, who visited Whakatane in the course of a Dominion lour. A large section of the appreciative audience was made up of local Scouts anil Girl Guides. Bishop Baddeley who was introduced by the Rev. J. C. J. Wilson, apologised for not Avearing his "pretties' as lie put it. but blamed the vaguaries of the Xew Zealand, eliminate for the fact, His. breezy style and expression when relating anecdotes in connection with Mission -work in Melanesia held his audience throughout and he was- accorded a liearty vote of thanks by acclamation at. his conclusion. The Melancsian diocese, he said, consisted of. Xew Caledonia, part of New Guinea, The New Hebrides and the Solomon Group together with many hundreds of .smaller islands and covered a vast extent of territory. Tq add to the difficulties of missionaries working there,, more than thirty-one separate and distinct languages arc spoken. Bishop Baddeley spoke of the devastation Avrought by tlie Japanese in their repealed, bombing attacks on mission stations and schools and the plight of the natives on the various plantations after nteny of the white people had left l'pr Australia. "There were natives there," lie said, "several hundred miles from their homes and totally unprovided for in the way of food or pay. For■''lnnately the missionaries combined to help them, and during the. course •of three or four weeks several hun•dreil were repatriated." He told of the loyalty and devotion to duty shown by the natives engaged on intelligence work against the Japanese. "They are," he said, "worthy of rtlie .highest praise lor the* work in which they are engaged, and the information they obtain is, Invaluable '.Jo the Allies."' "Another big factor." he continued, '"is the manner in which Allied airmen shot down on raids over Japanese territory are rescued by native boys and returned to their ibasc." The fact that but fifteen years .ago these natives were head liunt~ -ers was in itself a high tribute, to lithe work done by the missionaries. "The main thing the Islanders are in need of," said Bishop Baddeley. ""is, education. With a Government iloathe to spend money for tkc advancement. of the people, the work >of guiding the people along the way of modern methods and standards of living falls to the mission-

.Aries alone. By means of mission schools young men arc trained as -doctors and arc invaluable as they fully the manners, customs and tabus of their people, liesides that, they have the added advantage of being able to travel •quickly through the bush—their natural environment—to villages in rcimoter parts of the country."

In closing, Bishop Baddelcy brought to the notice of the public the appeal for £35,000 to be raised in New Zealand for devastated mis,sions throughout the world and said that. although he was not speaking with the idea of raising funds for vthe mission, > he. would be very glad if, when the time came, people "would remember his talk andd help 4o re-establish and rebuild the mission stations so recently devastated in the Solomons.