DESTINY OF PACIFIC

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3612, 12 March 1927, Page 3

DESTINY OF PACIFIC

BISHOP SPROTT’S ADDRESS. The part the Pacific Ocean will probably play in the world affairs of thei future was dealt with by the Bishop of Wellington (Dr. Sprot't) in a sermon dealing with the Melanesian Mission, which he preached in St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, Wellington, in the presence of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York on Sunday morning. 4 * To-day, said the Bishop, the eyes of the whole world were anxiously fixed on the Pacific Ocean. What the future had in store no ono could predict, but he thought it wa* safe to say that the present chaos in China could not last for ever. That country, with ability and durability of Government, established, with its 400,000,000 of highly cultivated people, and with its huge natural resources practically untouched must ultimately take a foremost place amid the great nations of the world. With a reconstituted China and Japan and America encircling it, it would seem that the Pacific Ocean must in years to come become one of the greatest —perhaps the greatest. —centres of human life and activity. There were some who maintained that the wliite civilisation in Australia, and! New Zealand could not be sustained, and that eventually they would be absorbed by the yellow races. Although man could not penetrate the secrets of the future they were known to God l . All must strive to regain faith in the Almighty and do the duty we owed to Him. The establishment of Christian schools and churches on the thousands of isles in the Pacific would be a source of help, hope, and life.