Century Of Mission

Work

Native Teachers Honoured

Ceremony On Oneata

Beach

ONE hundred years ago, two native teachers from Tahiti were approved by the Revs. Wm. Cross and Nathaniel Turner, of the Methodist Church, and Rev. John Williams and Mr. Barff, of the London Missionary Society, to go to Fiji and attempt the work of the evangelisation of the people there.

They were joined by a third teacher, and early in July, 1830, they landed at Oneata Beach. There they lived and preached, and the work paved the way for the coming of Messrs. Cross and Cargill in 1835. The teachers’ graves still remain.

The Fiji District Synod of the Metho dist Missionary Society of Australasia decided to hold a service commemora tive of the event, and it was resolved that the Lau annual meeting, for 1930, would be held at Oneata. Proceedings were opened by a brief speech by the High Chief of Lau, and, standing on Oneata Beach 100 years exactly after

the event, the chairman of the Fiji District unveiled the memorial stone erected to the memory of the teachers He told the story, so far as it is known of their arrival and work.

The Chief of Oneata, a grandson of one of the chiefs who sheltered and as sisted the teachers on their arrival, then related some of the stories which had been handed down to him. He told of the well they dug and called “Siloam,” which still remains to this day; of the compound thev built and called ‘Oadan-aram”; and of the pro gress of the church work at Oneata, and how it spread to the adjacent is lands.

There followed messages and testi monies of thanks, in which other fields and other heroes were remembered, as were also the past generation of work ers and the future servants of the Church in Fiji.

The Beach at Oneata, Fiji Islands, where the Religious Teachers from Tahiti landed, just 100 years ago.

Photo by Courtesy of Missionary Review.