IN THE SOLOMONS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3273, 9 June 1943, Page 5

IN THE SOLOMONS

WORK OF MISSIONARIES ADDRESS GIVEN IN PAEROA 16 YEARS SPENT IN ISLANDS Discovered in 1567 by a Spanish explorer, Alvaro de Mendana, the Solomon Islands were for two centuries lost sight of, so that -geographers came to doubt their existence, and they were expunged for a time from maps of the world. Their re-discovery was the result of persistent adventure on the part of explorers who believed that the existence of the islands was necessary to maintain the balance of the land and water masses deemed by geographers to contstitute the world.

This statement was made by the Rev. A. H. Voyce, for 16 years a Methodist missionary in the island of Bougainville, when addressing a meeting held on Tuesday evening in the Paeroa Methodist Chuch. The Rev. J. R. Nelson presided over an attendance of nearly 60 people. Importance of Islands

Economically, the Solomon Islands might be considered comparatively unimportant, but geographically they were of the utmost importance to political strategy in the Pacific, said Mi* Voyce, though for long they had been a veritable Cinderella among the South Pacific islands. Lands of mountain and jungle, with a copious rainfall feeding large rivers, their mineral wealth and industrial possibilities, fertility and even their potentialities from a tourist point of view, invited fuller exploration.

In the Bougainville group, where his own mission station was located, the native population, the speaker remarked, was about 60,0'00. Though there was one language in the Bou-gainville-Buka area which might be considered the standard language, the difficulty of acquiring the- speech of the islands was complicated by the 20’ or 30 different dialects it comprised.

“Pidgin English” Used

The use of the language- by the administration, trading and missionary interests in the group was facilitated by the employment of “pidgin English,” which, though amusing to European hearers of the “lingo” on the lips of natives, was by the latter taken quite seriously. This kind of speech, though largely unused in other Solomon Islands groups, was quite customary in New Guinea Territory, which, politically and administratively, included Bou-gainville-Buka. It was quite a necessary and valuable adjunct to the missionary in proclaiming the gospel of redeeming grace. The speaker graphically described a number of native habits and customs, including the infanticide of unwanted children, suicide —mainly among women, who often hanged themselves for the most trivial reason —polyamy, the initiation of young- boys into manhood, etc. Mission’s Growth From small beginnings in 1917, Methodist mission work in the Bou-gainviile-Buka group had developed to such an extent-said Mr Voyce, that the most recent figures included three European ministers, two sisters, two native ministers, 163 native teachers, five native medical workers, with approximately 150 churches, 132 day schools, 2000 scholars, 8000' church adherents. The number of adherents in the whole of the Solomons field was approximately 18,000. The speaker referred to the present difficulties of the work, now carried on with much courage and loyalty by the native church, because of the compulsory evacuation of the missionaries owing to Japanese occupation of the group, and appealed to the congregation for its sympathy, prayers and liberality in maintaining the methodist mission in the Solomons. A vote of thanks to the speaker was carried by acclamation on the motion of Mr H. Wood (the local church missionary secretary).