LIFE IN MELANESIA.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1869, 1 October 1913, Page 8

LIFE IN MELANESIA.

INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. The work of the Melancsian Mission was outlined by the new Bishop (Dr. Wood), who is on a visit to Australia, in a conversation last week. Bishop Wood was not acquainted with his diocese when ho was last in Sydney some twelve months ago, being then on his way out to it from England. He said that what had impressed him mo3t on taking up his work was tho thoroughly good way in which the organisation had been laid down by his predecessors. The ultimato object of tho mission was to found a native church, as distinct from tho church of tho white man, with native clergy in charge. The ideal might not bo realised in his lifetime, but that was what they were aiming at. Bishop Pattcson had from the start set about training tho natives to do their own evangelistic work. They now had 700 native teachers who kept going a very fair standard of Christian morality and conduct, with very little white supervision. Ho did not wish to draw too rosy a picture of tho native converts. They woro only' human, and "cama croppers" like tho rest of us. But on tho whole the results wore very satisfactory. Tho many diverse languages and dialccts spokon mado the work of the mission very difficult, and tlio necessity for a common language would be readily understood. Tho question that burl Vi liti decided when Uo took over the mission was whether .theyshould adopt English or retain "Mota/' which had been tho lingua, a Franca of that portion of tho Pacific since Bishop Patteson's time, or divide tho mission into four groups and chooso four main languages. What ho had resolved upon was to retain "Mota" because lio was convinced that it mado for tho unity of the mission, and, if cut out, the present system of training teachers on Norfolk Island would become impossible. Ho hoped they would be able to teach English as an ordinary. class subject, but he thought that the principle of teaching natives religion in the native tongue was tho soundest. N The Solomon Islanders were men of fine physique, and wero holding their own. .The policy of tho mission was to discourage tho wearing of clothes other 1 than the lion cloth or "mals." Of course when they came in contact with civilisation it was inevitable they would wear clothes, but the mission did not encourago them to do so. Tho wearing of European clothes was often followed by pneumonia and consumption, and to liis mind a native looked better and certainly fared better when attired in his primitive fashion, which was merely a cloth around the loins.