LOCAL COLOUR AND SAMSON

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2102, 10 June 1907, Page 3

LOCAL COLOUR AND SAMSON

“I have lost a suit of clothes 1” The congregation at the Foreign Mission Conference in Flinders street Presbyterian Church (says the Ade-

laide Advertiser of a recent date) was somewhat startled. “Yes,” continued the ltev. T. Watt Loggatt (a missionary from the New Hebrides),

“I have mislaid a gentleman’s wardrobe. If anyono should come across it around this vicinity I shall be glad to havo it returned to mo. I might say that it is just possible that the garments could be overlooKed, for they weren’t made in Adelaide. They belong to a. dusky gontloman, resident in the island of Male'kula, in the New Hebrides, and the dress of my dark-skinned friend would fit comfortably into your own vest pockets.” (Laughter.) “Y’ou know” continued the missionary, “when New Hebridian converts join our band and come to the mission house we like—for the sake of appearances—t'o provide them with a few additional coverings. Those extra garments act, too, as a sort of badge of belief, for '"they convey to the heathen natives that their wearer is a convert; which reminds me of the quaint but direct methods of teaching employed by the native preachers. They don’t worry their hoads about the New Theology—(laughter)— and they employ a deal of local- colour, which gives their Bible narratives striking point. I heard one convert tell to a crowd of dusky brethren the story of Samson. He said that first the enemy tied Samson up with creepers. Samson puffed out his chest and burst the strings. Then they bound him with twined swathes of creepers; but Samson shook himself, and the bands snapped. At this stage the teacher was stuck for a superlative means of expressing the third capture of Samson. At last he bethought himself of a new and awe-inspiring sort of rope, samples of which had just reached the island. Then, said he, the Philistines wrapped Samson up in barbed wire!”