MELANESIAN MISSION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1006, 22 December 1910, Page 8

MELANESIAN MISSION.

THE ANNUAL MEETING.

The' Bishop of St; Albans presided on November 4 at the. annual meeting of tho Melauesian Mission (which 'is attached to the Church of the Province of New Zealand): held at the ! Church House, Lorfdon. In a preface to. the annual report, by tho Bishop.of Melanesia, his ■ lordship ■ referred to the changing conditions,; as, compared, with the circumstances of half a' century ago,- under which tho work if the"'mission' was being done., ."The, increasing importance of the Solomons, tho ; fresh openings .for- trade and their effect on the mission, the ~ relation' of the Government' to Christianity, are brought but in a, way that suggests the need, of continually solving fresh problems, majiv of .which. were. not heard of fifty years ago." It was plain that the. mission was still' undermanned,' .'and these, "islands would . notbe; won ' until the Church at Home ■ and in Australia, and. New Zealand rose to a keener sehso of. responsibility, and supplied workers,; clerical and lay, as readily as Roman Catholic and many non-Episcopal societies were able to do.

Tho chairman said that he did . not believe thero was any mission in the world which attracted a larger .number of warm-hearted, keen, and "attached supporters. He went on to refer with regret to ■ the. serious illness of. Archdeacon "Uthwatt,. who had had. a very' bad attack of malarial fiver. It'would bo .some months beforo ho would bo able to resume work in tho 'Solomon Islands. It was matter for congratulation that' the society, with •'the ■ New Guinea Mission, was- now connected with the Australian Board: of: Missions. • The appeal for £1500 for an oil-ship had ..been satisfactorily ; responded: to,. and /only £80 .remained to' be raised. The' greatest special need of tho.' mission Was the completion of the hospital,' and for this a' sum of £650 was wanteds Very real progress was being made i all .round; but the mission'had readied a stage, at which Churchmen."must give' further and greater help if the work was to be continued. : Tho' income must .be increased, and more workers, must be. sent out. Members of the English Church would have cause for shamo. if they could not do what other denominations wero doing. : . ...

Tho-Bishop of Rochester spoke of tho character of the people with , whom tho mission had to deal. Tho problems of the mission .;, were groat,, but . perhaps tho most difficult ,of all was tho return of tho Kanakas—men' who -had been sent home to : the islands. These men; came back with a kind of veneer of civilisation, having been brought into'contact with wliito people, not always of tho best, and wero perhaps, inclined to I. disparage tho character of tho white man in the eyes of those, who had' remained on .the island. ' To meet all these problems we had a mission which had been illuminated aiid glorified by the martyrdom of many —a mission which had been'in the eyes of tho wholo world assigned to our own Communion, and therefore stood boldly before the Christian world as a piece of work which tho Anglican Communion had set itself to do.'

The Rev. J. M. Steward, missionary at. Florida, in tho Solomon Islands, made an urgent appeal for men, and suggested that somo centres in the nature of Brotherhoods should be formed whero men could Jiv-e together. and thus escape the sufferings of isolation. Sir George 1?. Le Runte, Governor of Trinidad, testified to tho good workdone by missions.' Nothing, he said,' appealed to him more'than the devotion of native teachers to tho work. "Wo of the Kind's Service," ho added, "can never sufficiently acknowledge oiir debt to the missionaries-of every missioa." ...