EKETAHUNA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 December 1938, Page 7

EKETAHUNA

MISSION WORK IN INDIA

(“Times-Age” Special.) In the course of his remarks on mission work in India at the Presbyterian Church on Sunday, the Rev T. E. Riddle, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, said that India had a very ancient civilisation which was proved by excavations at present being'carried out. Stratum after stratum revealed yet older epochs until the life of 10,000 years ago was laid bare. Then water had superimposed itself and work had to be stopped. The degree of culture found was far in advance of that of today. India had developed in her own way. She was cut off from the rest of the world by theocean east and west and on the north by the Himalaya mountain ranges. Then, as now, her life was communal, the inhabitants of each village, of which there were about 7000,000, being inter-dependent. The farmer growing wheat, rice or maize, paid for all services with his produce. Labourers were paid about fourpence a day and out of this kept their families. It was this completeness of each village that made the work of the Christian missionaries so difficult. One seldom heard of a single conversion. If. say, a leather worker became converted, he would disrupt the whole of the rest of the village and for that reason he was so unpopular that he would have to leave. Mass conversions, where whole villages left Hinduism, were often heard of. In the south many of the untouchables were begging to come under the Christian faith and the movement was spreading to the high-caste farmers.India was on the eve of a great move toward Christianity. The Rev D. McNeur, of Masterton, stated that the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand was campaigning for an extra £lO,OOO yearly for a number of years, the sum to be raised by £1 added to each customary subscription, to help forward the mission work in India. Personal. Mr K. Moorhouse, of Christchurch, is on relieving duty at the Eketahuna Post Office for the holiday period.