MELANESIAN MISSION

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2390, 20 February 1915, Page 2

MELANESIAN MISSION

WHAT ARE, THE TUCK BOXES ? (Contributed.) The first tuck boxes wore, sent in 1894 to help the invalids and other missionaries travelling on the Melanesian Mission vessel, the Southern Cross, as the result of a casual .remark made by a member of the Mission staff to Hrß. Calder. At that,time Bishop Pattison's idea, that the white missionaries should live on the Islands, in native houses, and on native foods had not been wholly abandoned, so that undoubtedly there was a great deal of needless suffering then borne by . the missionaries. It has since been entirely given up, experience proving that Europeans cannot bear such a radical change. Comparatively few people can realise, the sort of climate that has to be facod in those islands lying from 5 degrees to 15 degrees south of-the Equator.'Particularly in the Solomon Islands, the northernmost group, and in the Santa Cruz group, the most easterly,-in which the Melanesian. Mission works. .The intense heat, the frequent heavy rain, "against whioh the thickest • waterproof ever made is utterly useless," the mosquitos and; other insect pests, besides all the serious'illnesses which beset human flesh and blood; make life very hard for white men ?nd women.

Tie tuck boxes are'now sent to help those who are on this outpost duty of this Church to bear these hardships and dangers, different from those our armies in Europe are bearing) yet quite as real, and .'in ona respect far worse. The clergy and . laymen are mostly on isolated stations, miles away froii one another or' any white man often with long stretches of 'sea''betweei them' and any help; so that the loneliness and isolation,- especially during illness; :aje a real" and 'terrible" trial. Even in;- the case of the women, who work in parties of,two or three, they aro often the only white people on their island. . To those bravo men and women the tuck boxes bring, besides their material oontents, a message of cheer and of assurance of thought and care for thenij on the part of those they may never see in this wprld, that is.a scurce of.im-. mens© help'and strength. The following are some of the things packed in tho boxes:—Meat extracts, j&redigested beef, plain chocolate, cocoa, English biscuits' (small tins), dessert raisins, invalid roods, dried apricots, prupes, crystalised ginger, tins of toffee; dry' boiled sweets, dried milk, concentrated milk, cornflour, pickles, hone-made.jam (firm kinds in 21b.' treacle tins), honey (in tins), and tins'of vegetables, wines, orange syrup, lime juice, limo juice tablots,. vibronaj vibrona malt, orange and quinine wine, Stearne'e wine, b'eef and iron wine, quinine, port wine, celerina, all malt or maltine prepa-otions, Easton syrup tabloids, hypophosphates tabloids, toiiics, paregoric elixir, ohlorate of potash and cocaine tabloids,. solution of nitrate of silver, lunar. caustic,' kresolysol, kerol, all disinfectants, hazelinp (cream and fluid), vaseline, embrooation lanottne, emollientine, plaster rolls, antiphlogistin, any medical samples, bandages, absorbent cotton'wool, clear white rags, safety pins, lint, any other dressings, surgeons' needles and threads, illustrated papers, scod.current' novels, empty treacle tins, 2lb. (must be clean and free from rust), also mustard, cocoa, coffee, and other medium-sized tins with tight lids, and 2oz. oblong tobacco tins, : Contributions should be sent in to ■Miss Mestayer, 139 Sydney Street;. be■fore Fobruary 28.