The Patons Of

N. Hebrides

Remarkable Family Record Recalled by Death of Rev. F. J. Raton

rE second of the three generations of the Paton missionary family, who have given three successive life times of service to the primitive natives of the New Hebrides, passed away in mid-December, in the person of the Rev.

Frederick James Paton. He was 74 years old, and he had given nearly 50 years to New Hebrides mission work.

The pioneer was Rev. J. G. Paton, whose extraordinarily interesting notes and reminiscences concerning his early work in the South Pacific may be found in the biography, “John G. Paton, Mis sionary to the New Hebrides”, published in 1889. His son, late Rev. F. J. Paton, was born on the island of Aniwa (New Hebrides) in 1867; and he was educated at Scotch College, Melbourne. Melbourne University and Ormond Theological- Col lege. After service in Australia as a Presbyterian minister, he went to the New Hebrides Mission in 1892, and spent most of his life in most devoted

and .faithful service on Malekula. In 1917-18, he was an AIF chaplain in France. He had one son—Mr. J. G.

Paton, a well-known Sydney journalist.

THE Paton family was introduced to the New Hebrides in August, 1858, when Rev. John Gibson Paton, 34 years old, and his young wife, Mary Ann Robson, fresh from Glasgow, landed on Aneityum from an American ship, “Fran cis P. Sage”. They settled down in a rebuilt mission station at Port Resolu tion. Tanna; but they suffered great hardships and dangers, and severe ill ness, and the young wife died in Feb ruary, 1859. The Scotsman carried on grimly, and alone: but the Tanna natives were exceedingly cruel and incor rigible savaees, and they made his life a minor hell on earth. Finally, in 1862, he was driven out of Tanna, losing everything except his life. He was the last of the Scottish missionaries in the southern islands—all the others had been murdered, or killed bv disease.

But nothing could stop J. G. Paton.

He went to Sydney in a sandalwooder, whose drunken captain nearly killed him; and, utterly unknown, and with only one shirt to his back, he began to organise the Presbvterian Mission in the New Hebrides. He personally collected thousands of pounds, in Australia and in Britain; saw the mission ship “Day spring” built; set going, in 1863-65, the machinery under which the General Assembly of the Victorian Presbyterian Church became responsible for the NH Mission; and induced several new mis sionaries to follow him back to the islands. In 1864. in Scotland, he mar ried Margaret Whitecross, a woman of great culture and fine character.

In 1866, they went back to the New Hebrides Mr. Paton wanted to return to and conquer Tanna: but the church sent him to Aniwa, and there, during the ensuing 20 years, he converted the whole native population to Christianity, and was himself the backbone and pillar of the New Hebrides Mission. In 1887, when 63 years old, he again toured Aus tralia and Britain on behalf of his missions.

This great missionary had six child ren: I—Rev. Robert Paton, who was a minister in Victoria, and whose son, Rev. Wilfred Paton, is now a missionary at Malekula; 2—Rev. F. J. Paton, New Hebrides missionary, whose death is the original subject of this article; 3—Rev.

Frank H. L. Paton, MA. BD, who was for some years a missionary on Tanna, NH, and who is now a well-known min ister in Victoria—his son, now Professor George Whitecross Paton. of Melbourne University, was a Victorian Rhodes Scholar: 4—Dr. James Paton; s—Mr.

John Paton; 6—a daughter, who mar ried Rev. John Gillan, a New Hebrides missionary, now dead —and their son.

Rev. John Gillan, is now a missionary on Malekula.

No family has given more mission aries, or better missionaries, to the Paci fic than the family of the original J. G.

Paton.