Tribute To The Late Rev.

W. V. Milne

The following very striking tribute to the life and work of Mr. Milne was wirtten by Mr.

Nottage.

THE death of the Rev. W. V. Milne, of Nguna, with tragic suddenness, on April 27, at the hands of a native who had suddenly gone homicidally mad, has removed one of the best-known and most highly-respected of the missionaries in the New Hebrides. He went to Nguna in 1905 as a missionary from the Presby terian Church of New Zealand, succeed in the Rev. Peter Milne, his father, who settled at Nguna in the dangerous days of 1869. For 32 years he had worked with singular devotion for the welfare of the natives of a large district.

The influence that he exerted over both natives and Europeans was tremendous.

For the natives, it was best shown by the manner in which he was always ac cepted, as a matter of course, as their helper and their refuge in trouble. He had the great gift of being able to bring right out almost any wrong, clearness out of confusion, and happiness out of strife or sorrow.

Faced with a task, however difficult, he always kept at it until by infinite pati ence and skill in details he had achieved something worthy. He could repair al most any part, in hull or engine, of a launch, and would make spare parts from most unlikely materials.

He was known to be fearless at sea, and had gone through thrilling times first, with an open boat, with oars and sails, and latterly, with a powerful launch. He loved and cared for his boat as truly as man ever did horse or dog and with equally good results.

If the medical work that he did were estimated solely by the lives that he saved, they must have been numbered in hundreds; while thousands received lesser aid.

The whole of his personal influence is expressed significantly and sincerely in a letter written by a French trader who was his nearest white neighbour for the past 10 years. He said: “By his kindness, his greatness of ideas, he was my refuge, and the balance of my acts. He was an Englishman, myself a Frenchman. Be tween us, we were only men, without a distinction of nationality. After 54 years of my life, the sweetest remembrance is attached to the name of my dear W.

Milne ... In the illness, in the sorrow, always, they were near us, always so kind and encouraging,”

Shining through all is the picture of him ministering the Word of God to his people. Here, too, there was simplicity, but so understanding and so closely re lated to their own way of thinking that none could fail to see and to appreciate the high intention. He aimed always “to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God.”

Proof of his success is to be seen by any who can spend time in the place where he lived, observing the natives there.

Tragic though his death was, he met it in going out yet once again to help his people in a time of trouble. —B.N.