Scientist.
p. 46 · Read in the full issue
A Famous Cleric And
Rev. W. H. Macfarlane.
A warm welcome was given to Rev.
W. H. MacFarlane when he arrived in Sydney early in November, via New Guinea, after completing seven teen years’ work in the Torres Strait Islands, in the service of the Church of England.
Many fine tributes have been paid to Mr. MacFarlane, not only as a missionary among the native peoples, but also as a scientist and a good citizen. The original selection of Mr.
MacFarlane for this work was a par ticularly happy one, as he is possessed of a nature and temperament which give him a quick understanding of the native mind and a broad, tolerant sym pathy in regard to the problems of both natives and Europeans. He also possesses the seeing eye and the scientific mind; so that he has written and lectured most interestingly con cerning his strange experiences in the Torres Strait Islands, while his contri butions to scientific literature have been accepted as extremely valuable He is essentially a “man’s man,” and has been the friend and confidant of practically every resident of the Strait. In the circumstances, it is not surprising to know that he supplied Mr.
Idriess with much of the remarkable data that the author made such effec tive use of in “The Drums of Mer.”
Mr. MacFarlane will take charge of a church in Victoria for a time, while his five growing children gain some of the advantages of city education; but it is inevitable that this unusually gifted man will sooner or later be moved back to the tropical work in which he has been so successful. Mr.
MacFarlane is still quite a young man and those with inner knowledge say that he is likely to rise to high places in the service of his Church.
The Tahiti trading schooner “Pro Patria,” which left in August with Mr.
Norman Hall (author) and party to visit eastern Oceania and Pitcairn Island, was totally wrecked on Timoe, an uninhabited atoll southward of Mangareva.
The French sloop “Zelee" made a search, when the schooner disappeared, and found the castaways, all sate, and transported them to Hao Island.