SOLOMON ISLANDS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 139, 13 May 1940, Page 11

SOLOMON ISLANDS

MISSIONARY ENDEAVOUR. An interesting visitor to Palmerston North at present is Mr Robert Vance, a missionary on furlough from the Solomon islands, who. has given several public addresses. The South Sea Evangelical Mission, Mr Vance explained, was founded by Miss F. S. H. Young, who was born at Motueka, Nelson, in 1856. She was a daughter of Mr Henry 'Young, a Judge in India. Miss Young settled at Fairymead, qjueensland, in 1882, and started classes among the kanaka sugar workers and continued until Australia adopted the White Australia policy, when the work was snitted to the Solomons in 1906. The organisation is not primarily at. educational mission or devoted chiefly to medical work, though both are carried on. It is a faith mission, whose chief aim is to bring the natives to a knowledge of Christianity and its Divine Founder, Jesus Christ. The Solomon Islands were first du> covered in 1567 by Alvaro de Met, dena, a Spaniard, and rediscovered by Bougainville, a Frenchman, in 1768. They were declared a British protectorate in 1893. They have an area of - 14,000 square miles and are situated about 1750 niiies from Sydney. The High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, Sir Harry Luke, rules from Fiji, and through a liesident Commissioner at the port of entry, Tulagi, and under him are deputy commissioners or district officers. These officers do their work efficiently and are well liked by the natives. The .Administration also has several medical officers in the group and supplies a certain amount ol medicine for distribution among the natives. These officers recognise the value of the mission and are very helpful when 'any opportunity presents itself. Dr. Northcote Deck, M. 8., Ch.M., F.R.G.S., the deputation secretary, is now in Canada on deputation work. The North-Eastern Solomons is a very wet and malarious place. The natives are Melanesians, speaking a multitude of languages. They, respond well to the Gospel and on the whole remain very true. The diet consists principally of trao, yams, sweet potatoes, bananas, cocoanuts, with a very few fish and an occasional pig. The heathenism is not a denial of God, but complete ignorance, Mr Vance said. They worship “akalos” — the spirits of their ancestors—and have rigid rules and codes in connection with this worship.