NEW GUINEA.

Temuka Leader, Volume 2, Issue 136, 12 April 1879, Page 3

NEW GUINEA.

At Wellington, on April 7th, the Eev. Mr Chalmers, of New Guinea, gave an account of that mission in the Congregational Church. lie said he could not yet report any conversions to Christianity to speak of, but could only report that the mission was doing preparatory work. The same state of things prevailed in Fiji and in the Navigators' Islands, and other Islands in the South Seas. Missionaries had laboured for 12 years, in some cases with far less hopeful signs than had occurred at New Guinea, where the mission had only been established six years. The younger natives were being taught to write and cypher and other civilising processes, and as far as man could judge, there were some who were very near to the Kingdom of God. Mr Chalmers noticed particularly a telegram that had recently appeared iu the newspapers attributing cowardice to European missionaries, by placing three ■ outh Sea native teachers in situations where the Kuropenns themselves feared to go. He characterised such statements as base insults, in as much as not one of the three teachers, who. with their wives had been poisoned, had been placed in a position where he had not himself previously visited, and had more or less confidential intercourse with the natives. The missionaries needed moral support. There was no word but ' cruel "to apply to those who sat iu comfort and security, and wrote leaders or telegrams, such as above-mentioned. Their reason for poisoning the teachers was done with the view to get possession of their property—the coloured cloth, beads, hoop-iron, &c, with which they were supplied to pay for such labour and assistance as they required. He had visited the stations since the poisoning, and had received offers of compensation from the natives, which of course he could not take, as he could not allow them to think that anything they could give was compensation for lives so taKen. He thought the greater punishment which could be inflicted, was to leave them alone for a year or so, and to station the teachers' successors in neighbouring districts.