MISSION SHIP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1940, Page 6

MISSION SHIP

VISITING EAST COAST PORTS. BOYS FOR TE A UTE COLLEGE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NAPIER, February 2. East Coast waters are at present being visited by the Melanesian mission ship Southern Cross VII. The vessel has been at Gisborne for the past few days and she is due at Napier tomorrow morning for a slay extending to Monday. The ship’s company includes several representatives of the Melanesian Mission —Major H. Stuart Robinson, general secretary of the mission. the Rev H. C. V. Reynolds, missionary from the islands, and the Rev Bon Bani, Melanesian priest. Apart from the officers, the crew is made up of islanders, and there are also two native boys, the first to be brought to New Zealand to attend Te Ante College. Major Robinson is an old Wellington volunteer who left for the South African War with the Seventh Contingent as staff sergeant and later hold commissioned rank. When the Great War broke out he served in Lyttelton as embarkation officer for the Main Body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Subsequently he served in Egypt and France. In 1924 Major Robinson retired from the New Zealand Staff Corps to take up the secretaryship of the Melanesian Mission.

The Southern Cross, a motor-yacht, appears squat and stubby, with a high superstructure. Every available inch of space has been made use of, and the lofty bridge is ideal for visual navigation among treacherous coral reefs.