MISSIONARY WORK IN THE NEW HEBRIOES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4614, 9 January 1894, Page 2

MISSIONARY WORK IN THE NEW HEBRIOES.

v i "IrVe liay« ,■ «trtb|ted- i^e ironv a'letter' the Rev. Rohert Wood # Siiictoq Preßbyteriap 'i^iii";iQlniVi Walt,'■■•: at ; Port,: Hebrides •—. ■;;;; t^j.' >■ :*ss& chief ohara6Wristi6;bf:'thief season. buß been rainj 'and':berei/if; never ■mw but- it f>6urs. ¥ To}trie] 1 natives,, the inodming year threaleiial' to, be one: of famine: but then, we; ktidw, = riatiyes): exaggerate at times.;; During',moti; than 20yeara life on Tanna;weneve| saw. the native gardens softf back£ At Kwaniera only.one is the rest are; barely begun, aathpMj creased raid prevents done, nay, grow almost aa'faßt hs it is TheTonrj believe they have the elements, and'one and credited with making this rain, some eases pigs baW-been ajiiM bribes to have it oases threats * of murderlEe ''bee)? made for the same purpbae, bdt, alas! ; from the Tsnnaman'B pointof view, bribes and throats have been equally , vain, and still it is rainj-rain, rain;: -•'■ As rain is the special feature in the" physical world herej : so ioai'% has formed a large portion of nut service; and .the grade, of patience has beea much called into exeroise;' During this year of isolation I have felt the waiting uiuoh, I was deeply, impressed with an article which' oame to us last mail, and as it expresses oloarly ;our experience I will relate a part of it. "Every old soldier knows that the hardest thing, in connection with a battle is the waiting under fire for the orders to move." Ab it is with the soldier in physioalwarfare, so it is with the soldier in life's battles of every sort. Waiting under fire is harder than moving forward in the. : thick of the fight; yet waiting is'a large part of a man's duty in life, when he would fain be actively doing something. Yet just because waiting is so liArd, waiting is the one duty of the hour. • —.'

Our illness of February and March \'"S had so pulled down our strength, and our recovery wa< so slow that it ; August before we: attempted any; K itinerating, However, in August we. '"v had al2 day's mission in the bush, , we apeut two nights at Yanmnarer; ■ h?: two at Yanatuan, and seven 'at' <; . l Yaneyeker. At the latter place we \ :; ;:■' tupefinterfdeil" the--erection of a new ■ grasschuroh-Gobool,and'jj^over: J forty people assisting. feast day over it, cooked,and niitive were 'at minister's wife table at annual soiree, or 'sooial, so here we by giving dresseß or all, As some one wii ely " A. minister mast teach the pooiftit; of hie flooli that he is something mora' - than a superior relieving officer, although lie must beai in mind i that it is often in this capacity he is first able to reaoh: Weir newts." Often I feel sura that theismoke and din of the battle keep us'jfrem seeing the victory that is- beipjg wou, for. ' doubtless the Tanna of to-day is not N 4 eten the Tanha of ten years ago. |Wo 1 were most hospitably entertained by J the Tannese, and'in that alone] wo m have a proof of the great ohingj ef- 1 fected on these people,' Lutely at} old m f#ow- Iwrng-nfear -unat fl tion tried to incite ÜB.to gTBHLita by telling, us how-the did, but unfortunately for out greedy friend we wore able to remind him of V| the other side, better known tous—how, these missionaries had been robbed,!their houses broken into, their ,H teaohers rraltreated and even.killed, H and they themselves at last obliged to H flee for their lives. Now the tables are completely turned, for not only were we fed and cared for while in H their villages, but on leaving we bad three splendid porkers given tp'us, Notwithstanding our long ifalks an£ life in grass huts, we were muoh-fl| benefitted by our bush residepce, our hearts were oheered witljitokenaflH 'of advanoß, On the 12th the "Lark" culled with our longed for mail, and having Mrs Gillan and Miss Jessie zie, the former returning to rejoin her husband and)feiral^^^^| work, the latter on her way her father at Erakor, and try to make up for the great loss Mrs aie's death Has been, I had pleasure of seeing a-white face, I had parted with on the Bth of December, from that time till 18p9,1 saw nought of my' save the sable beauties of Since her illness we have change, but with the present servioe a change off the next to impossible, so we made minds to make a visit to the suffice, but it was the 16th we found everything suitable., From that date we spenta pleasant fortnight under their pilable roof. We returned bout, but we were detained by -winds and Leavy e»o. , very heavy load of board, I had no fear of a I felt sure we would sink vre take a sea on board,' had done some nine years we barely escaped being believe a year of life wearing on'ine have round generally--^^^^^^^^^ fortunate run the lltb Ootober, for our unexpected an unpropitious day hearty and the day after our suaded the' men to It was who backs on services returning. We spent weeks almost to an hour and they were -especially to the'now kered slave-putting out-houses instead sad thing about roofaf at that they last short a tine to exposure to the salt spray,- •- any one suggest a preventive? are at endless-labour, and eipsuse, and see no help for it. painting the iron'does not This _ root-damaging exposure to sea air has, however, its tiona. How cool we feel the» f we intend to spendmostof "nghotseasonon ocean beach While at Kwamera we leep sorrow that war'had; itlkarupui; This war now m led to the: partial vork; ixcited'.: attend' ea,oher (pami)) ; : lonie down here ior tes'on Sabbaths and J ; P<Buud^j,s|i^jemb|^^^^^B

young Tonnamon supposing he wub not coming, bad conducted a prayer meeting instead, The gospel on Tanna is like a plant on a foreign soil, and yet bore and there, is a fair show of loaves, and a promise of f:uit. As you already know the New Testament has given an impetus to our work,. Here at Fort Eesolution all are learning to read, and a few oan do so fluently. We bare four Scripture readers who take their turn and read tbe chapter for the day at the Sabbath Bernces. Are we imitating the Church of England in this m«tter in having aclerk? Imust tell you about Ka a. Feisa young man at Itaku who never bad lessons from us, but who learned the alphabet and small words through the teacher. year he was laid up for months feet. He wbiled away deciphering the When we wero at 'SliiJ?. Kwamerahecame lo tee us, and in ':■■;(. course of conversation asked why :. . Take (another man in bis village) had notgot a New Testament, I said ; - "it is good you givo .. me one for him now. I sit beside - him in the church, and I can point the place for him with my pointer." I gave him a New Testament and was amazed and gratified to see him open it at random, and commence to read at sight, He told me of another led who spends hours poring over the precious book, and when surprise was expressed at his diligence he said " The words of this hook are not like the words of man; (hey are so good." We arem> pleased to see that some of our faii.iful fnnids in sending papers and magazines, have begun to put their names on. In this way we will be able to stop some, of which we receive more tban one copy. After the" Lark's" call about December till next April, May, or June, we have the prospect of what I call ut solitary confinement" with haid labour and great heat. This we understand is to be Ihe last Call of the " Lark " and what we will have next year we do not know, we hope it will Ii be better, it can hardly .be worse. The present prospects are nothing till \ April at the earliest. People wonder \ what we get to do down bere,someI times I wonder myself, yet from day \ to day we have more than enough lo J do. We have innumerable calls made \ I on our time, In the way of medicine, many a day we have as many . patients as if we were medicals, V Speaking of medicine I ought J to mentioni Macbean Stewart's * (of Chrlstchurch) asthma cure. It is wonderful the fame it has acquired on Tanna for all bronchial uflections. What is known as" Asthma Tobacco" is the favourite, and through the great liberality of the discoverer we have been able to meet all demands, I wish you alj a " Happy New Year," - Agnes C. P. Watt. Port Resolution, Tanna, New November 18th, 1893.