VELLA LAVELLANS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1611, 30 November 1912, Page 12

VELLA LAVELLANS.

s— DREADFUL- CUSTOMS. ' MISSIONS AND INDUSTRY. Telia Lavella is one of the Solomon Islands, about 30 miles long, and eight miles wide, with a population of about 5000 natives and four whites. Up to six years ago the island was the scene of map)' a' cannibal feast and horrible iite. the Yella La.vellans bearing an unenviable'reputation for fierceness and treachery".' Tney were among- the most notorious ,of the head-hunters. Headhunting, cannibalism, strangulation of widows, and other hideous • customs are now things of the past. A European may travel from end to end of tlio island without fear of molestation. How has this wonderful 'change come about? Not by Government punitive expeditions, where frequently the innocent ' suffer more than the guilty, but by the ceaseless toil and -perseverance of an earnest young Methodist missionary, with his whole heart and soul in the work—the Rev. K. C. Nicholson, of Bondigo, Victoria,' who "was the first white man to settle cn the, island .six years ago. He was two years' there" without apparentlymaking any impression whatever. Still, ■ ploddefl.; on cheerfully, and at the %nd of four years had the great joy of baptising his first convert. There have teen scores of converts since. All the people of Vella Lavella are not Christianised yet—far from it—but the leaven is spreading, and will, he confidently believes, permeate the whole lump before very long.- , Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson arrived in Sydney by the Mindini on November 9. Mr. Nicholson has had a bad_ attack of fever. He spoke very enthusiastically of his own work, and of that being oarried on by the B«v. J. F. Goldie at Kubiana. Ninety per'cent. of the natives of the latter-place, who had a very, bad character till recently, had come under mission influence. Mr.. Goldie had established a ye'ry. fine plantation, and it was hoped by its means to make the mission self-supporting. He himself was. also developing a plantation on Vella Lavella, to train the young men to habits of industry. Now that, they had put down the once popular amusement of head-hunting, it was necessary to provide some' other occupation to save them from the bane of idleness, that was so prolific of evil everywhere. Hence they aimed at establishing industries, and malting useful members of society of the natives. Some of. the boys on the mission station,:who had engaged in many a head-hunting raid, were now. able to read and write m their own language, and were particularly smart at -arithmetic. Tho work at the outset had been, of a very uphill .character. It was not till four yy>rs. after he had been there that his first'baptism took place. They were slow to make Church members of natives'. They kept theiU undei* observation for many mondhs, and did jaot baptise till a real change in .life was noted. The consequence was that tho .natives' on the, mission station, who would go out as missionaries themselves among thoso who still lived'in darkness, had been tested, and they would have. llo misgivings as to their conduct. According to native custom, the girls are sold to the man with tho longest string of shell money.' The equivalents . of the prices offered ranged from about .£3 to English money. The girls were not consul ted in the matter by their parents at all, and if one was sold to a man she did not care about, 6he took the. first opportunity of strangling herself. That custom was still in vogue. Another custom that they had succeeded ill stopping' was tho strangulation of a man's wives when he died. If he had no wife, then some useless, decrepit old women used- to suffer the fate. 'i'During the first three months of Mr.- Nicholson's residence on the island, twelve cases- of strangulation occurred in the vicinity of the mission, station. Mr. Nicholson had, he said, collected all tho. old widows whom nobody wanted, and established a widows home, teaching them sewing and' domestic work, and letting' them spend of their days amid .cheerful surroundings, instead of dragging out a miserable existence m the ' villages. Mrs. Nicholson was alsp carrying 'on very encouraging work among tho girls. ■ They came to the station as dirty little creatures, covored with sores. .As the result of oonstant scrubbing nourishing food, and healthy life, their skins sooni'became glossy, and their faces got a polish like, mahogany, ami they were always merry and bright. The transformation was astonishing. Christianity had a wonderful way of lighting up the faces of those whose hearts it touched. Speaking of the industrial development of tho Solomons, he said that no group had made greater headw during the past few years. He thought that alien labour must sooner or later be mtixKhiced, though he did not recommend it. Thero were great tracts of country lying idle, and that seemed a pity. The lal>our problem would soon reach an acute stage.