Rev. F. J. Baton.

Devoted Missionary Returns to New Hebrides.

REV. F. J. PATON, of the Presby terian Church, whom the Sydney newspapers describe as “a brave and devoted missionary,” left for the New Hebrides by the “Morinda” on June 9. He is returning to the mis sionary field, minus a leg, and at a fairly advanced age, because, as he told the reporters, "I have been away too long.”

Mr. Paton is a member of a family which has done wonderful missionary work. His father was Rev. J. G. Paton, famous in the New Hebrides, to whose memory was erected the Paton Memorial Hospital, in Port Vila. His brother, now the minister at Deep dene Church, Melbourne, was another famous missionary. His nephew, Professor Paton, of Melbourne, has written the best available history of the New Hebrides, together with a summary of the political position there. It will be published shortly by Pacific Publications, Ltd.

Rev. F. J. Paton, while crossing a flooded stream in the New Hebrides (says Sydney “Sun”), cut his foot on a jagged rock, and the wound became septic. He persisted in carrying on, but eventually had to be treated at a local hospital. Stocks of anaesthetics having run out, the unfortunate mis sionary had to grin and bear an oper ation without them. He made little progress, however, and had to be taken to Vila in an open boat, lying in agony on the deck for the trip of several days.

Then he was brought to Sydney Hospital, where, after a long fight to retain the limb, it was necessary to amputate it below the knee.

As a former soldier (he was a padre at the front), Mr. Paton was given an artificial leg, and has been spending busy hours learning how to use it properly. Mr. Paton was a popular patient at Sydney Hospital, where his cheery personality, in the face of ad versity, kept his ward always a bright and happy family.

To-day, he leaves again for his “parish” mountains, dense jungle, fever-haunted swamps, head-hunters, and native superstition—because the “Morinda” is the first ship he can catch. “They need me,” he says.