President-General

Rev. J. W. Burton to be President-General Methodist Mission Conference Discusses Native Education

AFTER 20 years' service as Secretary- General of the Methodist Overseas Mission (a position from which he retired in March), the Rev. J. W. Burton now becomes President-General of the Mission. He was appointed to this posi tion at the General Conference, which was held in Melbourne in May.

Mr. Burton is a firm supporter of the Australian delegation at San particularly on the question of trusteeship of native races. He would like to see the abolition of the indenture, or contract, system of native labour in the New Guinea Territories.

Mr. Burton leaves for America in August, where, at the invitation of the Methodist Society of America, he will lec ture on Pacific problems and missionary enterprises in this area. He may later visit Britain for the British Methodist Conference, to which he has been ap pointed Australasian representative.

AT the Melbourne Conference, the Rev.

H. M. Wheller, the out-going Presi dent-General, said that total mobili sation of the strength of Methodism was necessary if they were to carry out the work required in the Pacific.

President of the New Zealand Methodist Conference, the Rev. A. H. Scriven, said that education of natives must not be allowed to pass out of the hands of the church into the hands of the Govern ment. There already was a tendency for this to happen and, if it were continued, spiritual work among the natives would have to be greatly increased.

Faced with the need for modernisation, Noumea's five bakeries —Mercier, Capiez, de Rouvray, de Bechade and Panne— have formed a limited liability company of four million francs.