Islands Church Criticised

Letter to the Editor rE present state of the native church upon this Polynesian island is causing the older natives to speak with regret of the “days of Temiti” (Rev.

Mr. James), when the poor were more with the LMS than the rich. • The native church is “changing.” As a 20 years’ resident, I have seen both phases, “te tuatan a Temiti” and the current one. The present era places stress upon outward seeming; and a new morality, of a very curious kind, obtains. The appointments to deacon ships most reveal the changed outlook. (Deacons are “called” by Pastors, who are themselves trained at Rarotonga.) We have here, among our native deacons, men whom “violence covereth as a. garment.” One of these pillars of the church has been several times “sus pended” for assaults and trouble-making in the home, arrogance and aggressive ness. He continues, however, as a deacon. There are other church officers of a similar stamp; among these is the worst bully I have ever met, a man whose ferocious temper, utter contempt for the unwealthy, and immense conceit, accord very strangely indeed with the teachings of Christ. But leadership is in such men’s hands.

The question is, what has happened to native Christianity, that such types are “called”? Is this the sign of our progress? I do not think so. The mild and unassertive men of the older school were native gentlemen, not “flash” types.

There is, within the island’s social circles, evidence of a kind of boycott, that sees to it that critics and persons non-gratae with deacons, do not appear at functions. In consequence, there is much injustice: repute, honours, and that intangible thing we call “mana,” go to men who know nothing of honour — men petty in the extreme.

Must the LMS wait for some act of ferocious violence—say, a murder —to be committed, before it decides to bar arro gant men of undisciplined temper from leading native congregations?

In uttering these criticisms, I incur myself the risk of assault by such gentry.

Such is Christianity, 1945 version. “Eheu fugaces!”

I am, etc.,

Mangaia, 5/8/45.

Edwin Gold.

Fiji is getting ready for the hurricane season, and Flight-Lieut. Ralph Dyer, Acting Director of Meteorological Services at Suva, has issued a system of hurricane warnings to be used in the Colony. These will be broadcast from ZJV. The system is most comprehensive, but what lis teners in the Pacific will remember is that meteorological science has not yet been perfected, and there are scientific reasons why weather forecasts go wrong. Weather broadcasts are now made daily from ZJV Suva, at 12 noon and 9.15 p.m.

Miss Lesley Smith, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Smith, of Suva, is paying a three months’ visit to her parents after an absence of four years in New Zealand.