Work

Aeroplanes For Mission

Progress In New Guinea

r PHE daily papers, especially the Sydney Sun, have recently featured the news that the Anglican Melanesian Mission in tended to undertake mission work in the- Mt. Hagen area of New Guinea by means of an aeroplane. It was asserted that thus the Melanesian Mission would be the first Protestant mission to use an aeroplane for such work.

Both the Lutheran and the Roman- Catholic Missions have penetrated the regions alluded to in the daily press and have established themselves among the tribes that were discovered about two years ago.

The Lutheran Mission during the last eighteen months, has founded numerous stations in that inland region, three of them staffed with six European mission aries, the others with native Christians- In order to overcome the communication and transport difficulties the Lutheran Mission, in February of this year, put its own aeroplane on the wing.

Named “Papua,” it is a Junkers six seater all-metal ’plane. Presented by the German supporters of the mission, the machine cost well over £6OOO Australian before it could rise from its base at Lae- It has already rendered invaluable service.

The Lutheran Mission will celebrate the golden jubilee of its work in New Guinea next year. Its staff of over 120 adult European members and its more than 40,000 Christian natives, look back on a period of remarkable achievement and development. “The most striking feature of the work in New Guinea is the great zeal the young Christians show to go and carry to the heathen tribes inland that which has brought freedom and peace into their own lives, the gospel of Jesus Christ,” says Rev. F. O. Theile, director of Lutheran Missions, in a letter to the editor.