N.Z. Moderator In

New Hebrides

Worm Welcome To Former Missionary

THE Rev. T. E. Riddle, Moderator-De signate of the New Zealand Pres byterian Church, accompanied by Mrs.

Riddle and their two sons, has just con cluded a two-months’ visit to the New Hebrides. On returning to New Zealand from India where they have been labour ing as missionaries for 27 years, they broke the journey at Vila in order to Visit the islands with which they were formerly associated.

Mr. Riddle was a missionary on Epi for 8 years before embarking on his work in India, while Mrs. Riddle is a daughter of the late Rev. Peter Milne, of Nguna, where she spent her girl hood days. The natives of Nguna and Epi highly appreciated the friendly visit of Mr. and Mrs. Riddle, and accorded them a rapturous welcome, while Mr.

Riddle’s old friends sprang a surprise upon him by proposing that at the close of his Moderatorship in New Zealand, Mr. and Mrs. Riddle should return to Epi and spend the remaining years of their lives as their missionaries.

Still another surprise awaited them.

The last thing they expected in the New Hebrides was to have their movements and dining appointments broadcast by radio, and in so doing, Mr. Harvey, of the Bonkovia Radio Station, Epi, did a signal favour to Mr. and Mrs. Riddle’s friends throughout the New Hebrides.

The Foreign Missions Committee of the New Zealand Church commissioned Mr. Riddle to visit as many stations as possible with a view to laying before the Church a comprehensive survey of the existing situation in the New Heb rides. In pursuance of this plan, besides visiting Nguna and Epi, Mr. Riddle paid visits to Vila, Tongoa and Paama, where he had extended talks with the mission aries, elders and teachers.

A photograph of Mr. Riddle, and his outspoken denunciation of the condi tions in the New Hebrides, are pub lished elsewhere in this issue.