LIFE IN NEW BRITAIN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3497, 27 May 1920, Page 2

LIFE IN NEW BRITAIN.

i WORK OF THE MISSIONARIES. i Snapshots from life amongst the natives of New Britain were given to congregations in the various Methodist Churches in Wanganui on Sunday by the Rev. W. H. Cox, who was for eighteen jyears a missionary in that, group. Speaking at Trinity Church at night the misionary said that just before he left the island, a party with which he was connected discovered at a native settlement. 300 miles from the nearest mission station, that the horrid practice of strangling widows was in vogue. It was not practised, so far as he could, gather, in any other part of the island. The peculiar part of it was that the women claim it as their right and) would consider it strange if the custom were not carried out. They ask if the widow's spirit was separated from -her husband's h : o\v would they come together again in the spirit world, so widows insist upon going with their deceased husbands. The speaker referred to the almost incessant, fighting which went on in the unsettled part of the island, away from the influence of the missionaries. One village would raid another, and there would be counfer raids'and so forth. It. was a frequent occurrence for natives away from their homes to be murdered. The Rev. Mr Cox described the homes of the natives as poor, dirty dismal holes not pt for ijpig styes. There was no ventilation and their manner of living reflected itself in the faces of the villagers. The missionaries tried to uplift the natives in every possible way, teaching them to build better homes. The speaker spoke enthusiastically of the success which was meeting the efforts of the missionaries, and of the need for more workers. There were only eight white missionaries to 35,000 natives, and the bulk of the work was carried on by native agents. As successful as the work had been there was yet much more to be done, as there were at least 100,000 natives who had not heard the first word of the Gospel.