Untitled

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1929, Page 5

The Rev. F. J. Goldie who with the Solomon Islands Mission stations was transferred from Australian jurisdiction to New Zealand in 1922 thus speaks of the progress since that date. The work of our Church in the Solomohs has extended in all directions since New Zealand took charge in 1922. In that year we had only 13 European workers in the field: to-day we have over 30. Since that year we have established five new European Missionaries’ Stations. r ISvo new hospitals, in charge of highly-qualified medical men and staffs of trained nurses, are in full swing—doing splendid work for the native race. A well-equipped sawmill is enabling us to make good use of our beautiful native timbers for our buildings, and to build and repair our own •boats, in 1922 we had hardly touched the great and still heathen island o f Bougainville, but to-day we have at work on that island three white Missionaries and their wives, two Mission Sisters, and about 20 fine Native Teachers on stations of their own. In 1922 the'Mission District raised locally the sum of £2,520, but in 1928 the local income had grown to £6,134 —considerably more than double —and in addition the people had built their own churches and teachers’ houses, and in many cases helped to pay the teachers’ stipends. The opportunity to meet and hear Rim and two of the native young men in St. Paul’s Methodist Church on Tuesday is intimated in our advertising columns,