BIBLE SOCIETY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1943, Page 2

BIBLE SOCIETY

WORK ?AOST EFFECTIVELY CONTINUED IN SPITE OF WAR HANDICAPS ADDRESS BY REV. D. CALDER. AT MASTERTON BRANCH ANNUAL MEETING. Speaking of the war work of the British and Foreign Bible Society, at the annual meeting of the Masterton branch yesterday, the Rev. David Calder, E.D., B.A. (Dominion Secretary of the Society) said that the executive committee in London had prepared against the days of war with great advantage to the missionary work of the churches. It was was equally successful in attending to present day needs. Over two million Testaments had been provided for members of the King’s Forces, and regular supplies had been sent through the International Red Cross to British prisoners of war in Axis countries. The home territorial forces had been catered for, and everywhere the needs of chaplains had been considered. In New Zealand well over 50.000 Testaments had been issued to the Forces, and a supply of Japanese Scriptures was at once available when recently a chaplain was appointed to minister in their camps. The usual 'supply of Scriptures for the mission causes in the Dominion had been maintained, although with some difficulty. In attending to its world service, the society had met the paper shortage in Great Britain by distributing its printing throughout the world. Mr.. Calder gave instances of this and told an interesting story of this effort in- many of its intimate details. He also outlined proposals for the rehabilitation of the world work in Europe, in Ja- ’ panese-controlled areas, and throughout the free countries of the world. Most careful preparations are even now being made in New Zealand for the reprinting of the Maori Bible. The present version is one of great beauty of translation and expression, but is marred by many printer’s errors. Selected scholars, mostly Maoris, are at present proof-reading the Bible and will carry through their task until a text of the utmost possible purity is obtained for a new printing which will be undertaken as one of the first postwar measures.

Mr Calder outlined the prospective opportunity of the coming days of peace, and instanced the fact that in recent years 45,000,000 Chinese had learned to read, while in India the illiteracy of the people was being overcome for many millions of the ordinary people.