MISSION SHIP SAILS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 775, 23 September 1929, Page 16

MISSION SHIP SAILS

WORK AMONG THE ISLANDS THREE MONTHS’ EXCURSION Fully equipped for its missionary work among the South Sea Islands, the Melanesian Mission steamer Southern Cross left Auckland this afternoon on a three months’ excursion to the New Hebrides. Material and provisions for the mission stations were loaded this morning, included in the cargo being a large quantity of timber, hardware and building material, which will be used in the construction of houses for a doctor and a nurse at the hospital, now at Malaita, in the Solomon group. The hospital provides a very valuable service to the natives in the group, as hitherto the only medical and surgical attendance available has been the first-aid service performed by the missionaries. The Southern Cross carried four passengers, one of whom is Mr. R. Clarke, an experienced carpenter, who will supervise the erection of the new residences. A fully-trained nurse, Miss B. Guylee, is going to Malaita by the Southern Cross to go into residence at the hospital there. The other passengers were two missionaries, the Rev. A. Butchart, who w-ill be landed in the Banks Group, and the Rev. G. E. F. Leggatt, who is proceeding to the island of Mota, also in the Banks Group. It is usual, on the vessel’s early summer trip, to return to Auckland before Christmas, but it is expected that the steamer will not return from her present voyage until the first week in the new year.