Papua

Methodist Mission's

Jubilee

50 Years' Work in Papua

From Our Own Correspondent

Port Moresby, July 1.

rE Administrator (Hon. H. L. Mur ray), 40 Europeans, and some 2,500 natives were present at Dobu, in the D’Entrecasteaux Group, Eastern Papua, on June 19, when the Methodist Mission celebrated the fiftieth anniver sary of its work in Papua.

On June 19, 1891, Rev. W. E. Bromi low, chairman of the Methodist Mis sionary Society of Australasia, and Mrs.

Bromilow, together with Revs. Fellowes, Watson and Brown, arrived in the “Lord of the Isles” and established themselves at Dobu. The work done among the na tives, as stated by the first Administrator, Sir William Macgregor, as early as 1892, “was in all probability as great as, if not greater than, has ever been accom plished by any new mission among people equally barbarous in the same space of time.”

To-day, the Mission has extended its activities throughout the islands lying to the south-east and east of the Papuan mainland, and maintains native primary and technical schools, in addition to a well-equipped hospital.

Dr. Bromilow (he gained the distinc tion of Doctor of Divinity at Aberdeen University for his monumental work of translating the Bible into the Dobu lan guage) died in Sydney on June 24, 1929, after 21 years of untiring labour. He was known everywhere as the dauntless champion of the Papuans. A memorial church was later erected in his honour at Dobu, the foundation stone being laid by Sir Hubert Murray.

Another great worker associated with the Methodist Mission in Papua was Rev.

M. K. Gilmour, who retired in 1932, after 33 years’ service, mainly in the Trobriand Islands.