Truth WANTED: A MISSIONARY SISTER.

NZ Truth, Issue 144, 21 March 1908, Page 4

Truth

WANTED : A MISSIONARY SISTER.

PUBLISHED EVERY SATUBDAY MORNING at Luke's Lane (off Mannersstreet), WELLINGTON, ISf.Z. Subscription (m advance), 13s. per annum.

SATUBDAY, MARCH 21,- 1908

OTAGO LADIES' AUXILIARY OF METHODIST FOREIGN, MISSIONS

WOULD be glad to receive APPLICATIONS for the POST of MISSIONARY SISTER for work m New Guinea. . Applicants {who must he Members of the Methodist Church) rey quired to state age and their qualifications for the position. All information obtainable from Mrs ERNEST ROSEVEAR. Hon. Secretary, .243 Castle-street, Dunedin.

By a mere accident and on the genorous principle of "the better the day the better the deed " the relierious editor of "Truth" last Sawbath happened to be handed and. as greedily -devoured a the contents of thmt organ of New^ Zealand wowserism published m dour Dunedin, and called "The Outloolc"- As nothing more than the results of tray-trapninjr expeditions filled that portion of the

prayerful print devoted to wowseristic news, attention was directed to those columns which provide its main source of revenue. From among a variety of quack nostrum and ether specious advertisements the ove was selected 1 , and m a prominent part of this pious paper "Truth" gives it pride of place, and takes the risk of aiding and abetting m the murder of some misguided maiden by untutored sav.-ges m that most uncivilised portion of the British Empire— New Guinea. Now, this paper does not know Mrs Ernest Rosevear, Hon. Secretary of the Otago Ladies' Auxiliary of Methodist Foreign Missions, and on the general principle of giving the benefit of any existing doubt; it is here surmised and suspected, that Mrs-Rose-vear and the other ladies of the Auxiliary of Methodist Foreign Missions • are virtuous, respectable matrons, whose domestic ties preclude any possibility of their setting out to soothe and charm the savage into the true and' noble ways of Christianity and Civilisation. What, however, would be interesting to ascertain is the kind of information the Hon. Sec. could impart concerning the savage cannibal of New Gui-. nea who, having failed to learn and appreciate Christianity as taught by wowser missionaries, is being taught what British Civilisation means by the unerring bullets and bloody bayonets of the Soldiery and traders. The New Guinea . native is, with one possible -exception, the lowest and most wretched type of being moulded m the shape of man, that- is so far known. He is a cannibal, treacherous and blood-thirsty. His country •is malaria-infected, marshy and swampy, though here and there giving evidence of gold-bearing. His natural enemy is the white man, and the white man that still lives m the ■malaria-infected regions, and all those that have ever sought the elusive gold-nugget, the trader, the missionary, m fact, from Chief Judges down to the ordinary 'soldiier or noliceman have never taken a chance, and have killed on sight. The m isrionary foniehts trouble by his double-dealing. He preaches the Gospel, but trades dishonestly. The nigger is no class, he is to be shot ; to be exterminat&d. The savage, too low, tpo base, even more deeenerate than the Australian aborigine, is incapable of either understanding the mouthihgs of missionaries nor does he appreciate the bullets and the bayonets of the traders (and the missionaries) . Hence the instinct to preserve himself. The nearest human approach to the Simian, the New Guinea native (he is still undergoing the process- of evolution) lives like monkeys m trees. The instinct of self-preservation means, of ,course, the destruction of others, and the others", as far as New Guinea native massacres are concerned, include traders and missionaries. In turn, the native is punished. -The death of a trader is a sufficient provocation for a punitive expedition, likewise is tlie death of a missionary, notwithstanding all the glory of martyrdom. Now, it is "Truth's" deliberately expressed opinion that m advertising for a Missionary Sister for New Guinea, this Otairo Ladies' Auxiliary is asking for applicants for a cruel death. Why the qualifications and ages of any budding martyress should be asked for seems to us cuirious to a degree, because we imagine that maiden modesty and general ignorance of New Guinea is just the qualifications that would suffice. The law of the land, the law of any civilised country is directed against any foolish embarkation that means sudden death. and "Truth," therefore, m all seriousness, submits that the Ward 'Government should promptly prohibit any religious body sending to her certain doom m such .a place as New Guinea any young and misguided woman, imbued with fanatical zeal and a desire to wear a martyr's crown. New Guinea natives do. not require Christianising or civilising. It is ordained that the nigger m that islanfl must go, and the traders' and the minors' bullet carries its message of mercy to the uncaiculating nigger ; and these massacres are winked at by the authorities ; though missionaries, with axes to mind, have, m the past, created a great uproar, and, what is more to the point, it is due to the meddling missioner, that exChief Justice Christopher . Robinson, a young, bright, and enthusiastic Brisbane lawyer, some . years ago suicided, rather than ficht the missionary mob that he had hither to thwarted and frustrated m their double dealings. • New Guinea is just the climate which young and old women- should avoid'; It is a clime that is productive of nothing bui> misery and probably an end 'by- a nigger's spear. There a crown of martyr-: donv might be reaped, but are young and 'hiisguided women to be sent away to commit moral -suicide ? Theduty of these young women is to New. ' Zealand. Let them select \a/ loveable life partner, and m obedience to Scriptural injunction increase and multiply, and become the mothers and grandmothers of Now Zealand's stalwart sons and daughters of another generation.