DESERT OF SIND

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 566, 24 June 1933, Page 3

DESERT OF SIND

NEW IRRIGATION METH.ODS PROMISE FAST SETTLEMENT. The Desert of Sind is to be made productive of wheat, sugar and cotton by the barnessing of the River Indus at Sulckur so th'at water for irrigation may be turned from it. Miss D. M. M. Orton, of Montgom-ieryw-ala, Punjab, writing in the Church Missionary Outlook, urges that this fact provides a splendid opportunity for systematic colonisation of Sind. She refers to the work of the Church Emigration Society of England in dealing with emigrants, Iby which the riames of families who wish to go to Canada or Australia are sent by their minister to the (minister of the place to which they desire to go, all arrangements are made for their reception on arrival, and they reach their destination to find a warm welcome, a church, and new friends. She asks af something of this kind could not be done for people wishing to live at Sind. "Could not land be obtaiined from the Governmemt for future Christian settlements in which the Christians belonging to our Church could live together, build, what at first would he only a kachcha building for a church, have a school to which' they could send their boys land girls, and feel that their Church had not deserted them in the new life; but was with them ready to give a helping hand, ready to minister to their spiritual necessities, to baptise their babies, confirm the elder boys and girls, marry and bury them, with Christian rites?" she writes. "Would not such' settlements inspire young men and women with the desire for service, to go there and serve their fellow-countrymen and. women, so that Christ's Church may be a witness far and wide? Will not the members of our Church and district mission eouncils choose an emigration committee to dnquire into the conditions for ofbtaining land from the Government for Christian settlements with all the necessary stipula-, tions ? "