p. 13 | Missions of New Guinea by S. W. CARR

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 17, 1910

Missions of New Guinea

By S. W. CARR

S. W. CARR

THERE are four missionary societies at work in Papua besides our own, in the separate districts allotted to them. They are the London Missionary Society, Roman Catholic, Methodist, and Anglican. The London Missionary Society was the first to commence operations in the Torres Straits in 1871, under Messrs. Murray and McFarlane, of the Loyalty Islands, together with a number of Loyalty islanders; but actual work on the mainland commenced at Port Moresby with the arrival of the Rev. W. C. Lawes, of Niue, and a number of South Sea island teachers, in 1874. The location was found to be very unhealthful; for within two years the local cemetery contained eighteen graves. Since then native teachers from Rarotonga, Samoa, Niue, and the Loyalty Islands have, under the London Missionary Society, been used of God in bringing the savage tribes along the southern coast to a knowledge of the gospel. Much, very much, remains to be done, both on the coast and inland, and the spirit displayed by many of these South Sea islanders deserves our highest commendation. During the first twenty years more than one hundred twenty of these died in New Guinea of fever, or were poisoned or murdered.

The following reveals the true missionary spirit. The natives on Darnley Islands tried to prevent the Lifu teachers from going to Murray Islands to carry the gospel. “There are alligators on Murray Islands, and snakes, and centipedes,” said they. “Hold!” said one of the teachers named Tepeso, “are there men there?” “O, yes,” was the reply, “there are men, of course, but they are such dreadful savages that it is no use thinking of living among them.” “That will do,” said he, “wherever there are men, missionaries are bound to go.” Later Tepeso, with his wife and child, fell victims to the fever. These South Sea teachers receive from fourteen to twenty pounds a year in wages.

The names of Dr. Lawes and James Chalmers will ever be connected with the early history of New Guinea. The former translated the New Testament and a number of the Old Testament books into Motuan, and was for many years connected with the work at Port Moresby, and later established the main London Missionary Society training-school at Kapakapa. Retiring from active mission work in 1906, he died in Sydney the following year. Chalmers, or “Tamate,” as he was called by the natives, spent many years of arduous labor exploring and establishing stations, and was eventually murdered, together with the Rev. O. F. Tomkins, in 1901, at Goaribari, an island in the Gulf of Papua. These are the only white missionaries who have been murdered in New Guinea.

The territory of the London Missionary Society extends from the Dutch boundary, taking in the Torres Strait Islands, right along the southern coast to East Cape, a distance of more than one thousand miles. There are thirteen white missionaries at as many stations, one only being located inland, about forty miles from Kapakapa.

The gospel is being preached in many different languages and dialects in this vast territory, and in six of these, portions of the Bible have been translated. There are eighty-six South Sea and eighty-nine New Guinea teachers employed, and school is conducted three or four days a week in every village where a teacher is stationed, the total attendance being about five thousand.

The white missionaries seem excellent Christian people, with whom we hope to continue on good terms. The London Missionary Society spends about thirteen thousand pounds each year in the territory, but on account of financial difficulties word lately came from the directors of the society in England to retrench. May the heart of every Seventh-day Adventist be filled with the same spirit as prompted the following reply from one of the missionaries: “How can we go back! Let those who order us to retreat furnish us with the spirit of retreat.”

Port Moresby.