"Ecole Pastorale"

Fine Missionary Record of the Verniers

rE photograph which accompanies

this article shows the present stu dents of the “Ecole Pastorale” of the Protestant Mission of Tahiti, and their superintendents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Vernier.

This theological training centre was founded in 1870 at Papetoai, Moorea, was removed to Mataiea, a district of Tahiti in 1900, and to Papeete in 1911.

In 1911 it stood on the hill just above the valley of Sainte-Amielie, but in 1923 it was re-established on the picturesque Plateau Du Semaphore.

This property belongs to the native church community and is called “Mount Hermon (“Hermona”). Students, who come from Tahiti and every other quar ter of French Oceania, are carefully selected from many applicants: there are not more than 10 in residence at a time;

all are married but with no more than two children at the time of entrance, and they must tfass health, bible and general knowledge examinations. The course takes three years.

The superintendent of the Tahitian Church, Mr. Charles Vernier, is director of the school, and he and his wife live with the students.

All the students are fond of music and have good voices; the Hermon choir is greatly appreciated when it smgs in the native church in Papeete, every Sunday, Mr. and Mrs. Vernier have a long record of missionary work on their own account and both come from missionary families. They have been engaged on this work for 32 years in French Oceania, first in Raitea and then m Pa P ee^ o Vernier has been in charge of Hermon since 1935. His father. Pastor Fredenc Vernier, arrived m Tahiti in 1867 and did missionary work for 40 years humig eight of them he was chaplain to Queen Pomare IV. He had two daughters and five sons—-all the sons becoming either ministers in France or missionaries

Tahiti or Madagascar.

Mrs. Charles Vernier is English-born, but her father was a member of the Paris Missionary Society in Basutoland The Charles Verniers have four sons, all of whom were being educated in France when France collapsed in 1940.

One later escaped and joined the Fight ing French Forces in North Africa. The whereabouts of the others is uncertain.

Photo, by Frederick Simpson.

Mr. Gideon Bish, for many years a resident of Fiji, died in Auckland, NZ, on May 3. He was born in Brighton England, 80 years ago, and emigrated to New Zealand when a young man. In the late ’nineties he went to Fiji under engagement to the CSR Company at Rarawai. Later, he started business on his own account in Suva, subsequently buying the blacksmithing and engineering firm of W. H. Terry & Co., which was moved to Walu Bay, where Bish Limited is still carrying on business. Mr. Bish is survived by five sons and one daughter; Messrs. John Edward Bish and Albert Bish, in the Public Works Department, Suva; Prank G. Bish, Auckland; Leslie Alfred Bish, present manager of Bish Limited, Walu Bay; Leonard Oswald Bish, in business in Suva; and Mrs.

Grace Winifred Beatty, now in Auckland