THE MELANESIAN MISSION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 53, 1 March 1872, Page 2

THE MELANESIAN MISSION.

We are indebted to a correspondent for the following iuterestiDg extracts from a letter received from the Eev. R. H. Codrington who is now in Auckland en route for Queensland : —

After speaking with great feeling on thesad subject ot Bishop Patteson's death, ho says : — " At first we hardly knew how we should be able to get on without him ; but after a while we succeeded in keeping the school going at Norfork Island very satisfactorily. We had of course to throw much upon our elder scholars, of whom no less than 20 are at work as teachers, and they responded well to our call upon them. The general tone of the school is very good. We have 154 there altogether, of whom 63 aro communicants. There are many others now at home in fhe various Islands. We never before had so large a school, nor one so well proportioned as yielded by the different groups. It was a great encouragement to us that 13 boys and girls came forward to ask for baptism very soon after we were left without our Bishop, a proof that the work was not giving way. The death of Stephen Tawaniare made a great impression ; his patience, cheerfulness, and forgiveness of those who killed him, were generally taken as the best proofs of the truth of the religion he had embraced. His death, with that of Mr. Atkin, will, I fear, throw the work back very seriously in the Southern Solomon Islands, but elsewhere I don't think we shall find arjy serious change except what this horrible slavetrade is causing everywhere. It is to be hoped that Bishop Patteson's death will do much to serve the cause for which he lived, in bringing people to see the true character of this traffic, which has already desolated and demoralised beyond recovery so many of the islands. It is most satisfactory to see how the feeling in the colonies is stirred against it. I am here in Auckland, on my way to Queensland, to see if we can do anything there to teach the thousands of Melanesians they have carried away from us. Just as we were ready to give them regular teachiug, they have been taken away; but we must follow them if we can."