SOLOMON ISLANDS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 72, 27 March 1933, Page 9

SOLOMON ISLANDS

MISSIONARIES' WORK

MUCH ACHIEVEMENT.

A heavy decline in the value of copra, which is the staple export product of the Solomon Islands, has seriously affected the whole group and created unforeseen difficulties for the missionaries, according to the Bcv. J. F. Goldie, founder of the Methodist mission in the islands, who is at present visiting Now Zealand. - Mr. Goldie said m Christchurch last week (reports the Christchureh "Star") that a few years ago the price of copra was as high as £40 a ton, bnt it was now worth only about ©5, and. if it were not for the benefit of the exchange rate it, would not ;be 'wx>rth exporting It is thirty years since Mr. Goldfo first went'to the. Solomon-Islands. At that time the natives were very wild and there were numerous tribal"1 fights but now they are living in-comparative peace, and the principal disturbances I are caused by earthquakes, which lately have occurred fairly frequently. Mr. Goldie said that the population of the group was now quite accustomed to earthquakes, which; fortunately, did not do a» great deal of damage because there were no large" towns and no brick buildings. Some of the earthquakes, in his^ophiion, were as severe as the one which occurred'in Hawke's Bay, but were, of course, not so disastrous in their effects. ._ EDUCATIONAL WORK. _ When Mr. Goldie established the mission there- was no written language in the islands, but in the New Georgia group, in the central part of the islands, there was now hardly a man woman, or child who could not read or write the native language. That represented a . very considerable achievement in view of the difficulties that had to be faced in carrying on the educational work. The mission had established a'training college, which at present had sixty-five theological students, and last year 194 of the best of the young men of the Solomons were acting as village pastors and teachers. The population j of the mission district was over 100,000 i and the group was the largest in the Pacific, having three times the land area of the. Fijian group and with mountain range.s up to 10,000 ft in height.. The.humidity was very great, with the temperature ranging from, 75 to 95 degrees, and the yearly rainfall varied from about 90in in the eastern group to as much as SOOin in the western group, in which the Methodist Mission was situated. | MISSION" PLANTATIONS. As part of its activities' in the islands the mission carries .on several plantations, but Mr. Goldie explained that this work was not undertaken with the idea of making profits. The' object, he stated, was to keep in "touch with the natives and to afford facilities for giving them instruction in: better methods of planting and generally influencing them for good. Any profit that may be made was spent in further educational and medical work among the natives themselves. -The medical work, he explained, was exceedingly important, and was under the supervision of Dr. E. G. Sayers, a former Christchurch boy, who was a recognised authority on a number of tropical diseases. He had his headquarters at the Helena Goldie Hospital. Dr. Clifford Jones, of Dunedin, had been in charge of the No. 2 hospital, but it had had to be closed on account of the economic depression.