MISSIONS IN THE ISLANDS

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1930, Page 3

MISSIONS IN THE ISLANDS

STRONG CRITICISM. . .. ... ..... f •? “LIVING IN THE LAP OK LUN Eliy,” AUCKLAND, November 24... .“J was greatly impressed with the number of churches-, in the longan group,” said Mr G. W. Allspp, a retired Auckland architect who returned by the....Tofun th s morning after a seven months’ visit to the Tongan and Samoan Islands. “The place is simply bristling with churches. In villages .vherc there are only a few huts each denomination has its church and- I found instances where three and four shurches were' established when the total population' would not lili one. Some of these churches are most pretentious and quite as large as would he met, with in the suburbs .of Auckland. The altars in many cases have cost from £2OO to £4OO each. “There is great competition among the missonaries, and they appear to he the only people prospering,” he-con-tinued. “They certainly are living in the lap of luxury. They are paid considerably higher salaries than they would receive in the Dominion or elsewhere. I: know of one missioner drawing £450 per annum. He conducts one or two services a week and the rest of the ■ time lie lolls‘about his house, which, by the wav, is provided free, as i.S also his motor-car. The nat ves will steal "anything from a cow to a chicken to give the church donations, in kind or'money,” he added. “A SCATHING INDICTMENT.”

“Volt are delivering'a scatliVnfc indictment,” suggested tin? reporter. “Tliat is so, but it is true,” said Mr Allsop. “I am speaking from my own experinences in the islands and also from the experiences of res dents recounted to me.”

“Nearly all the churches in the islands are in disrepair,” said Mr Allsop. “Tile wood is rotting, and they have a general appearance of dilapidaton and require painting. Once they are built it appears tliat nothing is done in the wav of maintenance.”

Miss 1). E. Ferguson, who up to June last was attached to the Free Wesleyan Church Mission in Tonga, stated this morning that 75 per cent of the people in Tonga belonged to the Free Church, They were a law-abiding people and it was unlawful to take even a coconut from a plantation without perm ssion. She knew of no missions in the group in which New Zealand was directly interested, although several New Zealand women had taken up mission work there.