Centenary Of Tongan

Missionary

P T , HIS is the centenary of the birth of the Rev. Jabez Bunting Watkin, for years a stalwart of the Tongan Free Church, and the son of the Rev. James Watkin. who served in Tonga from 1831 to 1837. J. B. Watkin was born at Vavau on March 31, 1837, and entered the ministry in 1863. As a child he lived in New Zealand with his parents, where his father was one of the first Methodist ministers in the South Island.

J. B. Watkin was a minister of the Methodist Church in Tonga from 1866 to 1886, when he threw in his lot with the Rev. Dr. Shirley Baker in establishing the Free Church, a split that clove Tonga

in twain, and has not yet been really cemented. Baker’s object was political as well as religious. Although Queen Salote has done much to bring the fac tions together, there are still a number of “die-hards” in Tonga who refuse to join the Methodist Church as now con stituted. J. B. Watkin died in 1925, and is buried in Nukualofa. James Watkin, who died the year that his son retired from the orthodox Methodist fold, is buried at Rookwood, near Sydney. —Eriki.

Major-General Sir Charles Rosenthal will assume office as Administrator of Norfolk Island on November 4. Until then, Captain C. R. Pinney, the retiring Administrator, will carry on.