A BLACK PREACHER.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4654, 28 January 1924, Page 4

A BLACK PREACHER.

MAN WITH AN INTELLECT. AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL. A full-blooded Australian aboriginal occupied the. pulpit o£ St. Mary s Anglican Church, Waverley, Sydney, on a recent Sunday evening. Am elderly man, this preacher, Mr David Unaipon, has delivered the Divine message before, but it was the first occasion in Sydney. His visit to this city has aroused widespread interest. We are generally taught that the Australian aboriginal is among the most primitive of all the human races. If one ..were to judge from Mr Unaipon there would be little truth in it.

He has been stationed at Melbourne for some time as one of the deputationists of the Australian Board of Missions. His missions tlmre are reported to have resulted in much fruitful work.

It was as a child that he turned from the primrose path trod by those of his race. He quickly adapted himself to hi,s new environment. Taken in hand as a child by the lower Murray Mission, he was brought up with whites, and quickly became one of them under the civilising influence of the mission. To day he is consecrating his life to the work of the church.

An elderly figure, Mr Unaipon pleaded strongly for the aboriginals in the course. of his sermon. He said he believed in a universal mission, and he was doing his little part, he hoped, in the carrying on of that great work. But he also believed that they must begin at home. Charity began at home. They should not neglect the mission to the Australian aboriginies. In advocating the cause of his own people, he said it was stated that aboriginals were such a low type that it was impossible to Christianise thes, and thus futile tc spend time and money on them. That view be did not agree With. An evolutionist. he told his congregation, had come across a degraded aboriginal —one who had come into touch, unfortunately, with those vices that had come in the .trail of civilsation. The aboriginal in question also, bore upon his body marks of the diseases introduced by civilsation. The evolutionist had remarked that the man supported his theory that the aboriginals were of the lowest type. But it was pointed out to the evolutionist that he had not seen what Christianity had done for the Australian aboriginals. Thought created by some scientific men had also proved obstacles in the path of the aboriginal. It had completed the question : “Why waste your money on them ?” To show that it was possible to Christianise and educate the Australian aboriginals, Mr Unaipon cited with modesty, not only his own ease —his own life story—but the story of a little black boy who had been taken straight from camp, life, and was about to take hjs diploma as a doctor in one of the .universities, after a brilliant course, when he was stricken down with consumption. He proceeded to tell df the kindly influence with which his own young life had been surorunded.