MELANESIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8437, 8 May 1907, Page 5

MELANESIA.

AN INTERESTING ADDRESS.

Mr R. G. Coates, who has for some , years worked as a missionary in ' Guadaldauar, one of the Solomon Islands, and who is, returning next month to Melanesia, gave n most interesting address last night in S. Matthew's Schoolroom, on the Islands of Melanesia, and the work of. the mission in them: t : Mr Coates' address was illustrated by lantern views from photographs .' partly by himself, and partly by Mr Beattie, who was sent to the i„ .' islands by the Tasmanian authorities, Mr Coates' lecture was interesting y from many points of view; frbm the ■ ethnological, inasmuch as he showed the differences in the tribes as he reviewed , the islands from north tp south; from the political, as he - dwelt on the kanaka question; and from the religious when from ; the camera he showed tfee difference Christianity had made. He ; .laid special emphaßis on the fact that the mission does not seek to Europeanise . ' the natives, but to spiritualise them, and that the work iis done more by " the natives themselves than by Euros pean missionaries—." a black net with white corks." There was a very good attendance, and Mr W. A. Fendall voiced the v, feeling' o£ the, meeting when he' Coates , and. promised in|vr' ''.ireresfc'ih hie work. ' ■ W-f '■> -It"1s interesting to'remember that. J;i',- one "boy," one John Masterton. Se;j .'.-■> haa, who is supported by the S. , Matthew's branch of the S. Barnabas , .Association, keeps the good nafrte of Maßterton prominently forward in.the Islands. , ' ,