Tonga Greets the "Meline"

"Meline"

year the Seventh-day Adven

tist organisation purchased in

Sydney a yacht for mission service.

“The Endeavour ,” as she was called then, is forty feet six inches overall, with a 12 ft. 6 in. beam, and weighs 15 tons. She was shipped to Fiji early this year, and later was sailed to Tonga by Pastor W. G. Ferris and a Fijian crew. Mr. Ferris, in a personal

letter, says:

LEAVING Fiji at 5 p.m. we sailed south all night, passing the Lau group, and by daylight all was well. We checked our position and headed for the last speck of land to be seen. We passed this at midday, and then set course for Tonga Tabu. We were a party of five and there was plenty to do. I calculated that we would reach Tonga at 1 p.m. the next day. The boys found it difficult to believe my calculations, so they kept a sharp look-out for land. At 10 a.m. we saw the smoke ascending from the distant volcanoes to the north of Tonga Tabu and at 12 noon I took a sight of the sun and calculated that we were just seven miles from Tonga. As the island is low-lying we couldn’t see land. Half an hour later a boy up the mast sighted land, and what a shout!

We were true on our course, and it was a thrill to find that the sextant was correct and that a small dot of land in mid-Pacific could be found.

A round of feasts followed our arrival, and the grandest and most important occasion was the visit of the Queen to the ship and a celebration of the ship’s arrival in Tongan waters.

The ship was decorated with bunting from stem to stern and topmast. The Queen’s flag flew grandly from' the top of the mast. We built a special gangway and painted it white for the Queen to walk on. Tapa cloth was laid from the road to the boat. The children from the Beulah School formed a guard of honour from the car to the boat, and the European mission staff waited on board as 2 p.m. drew near. When the royal car drove up, greetings were exchanged, the Tongan National Anthem was sung, and the Queen was escorted through the crowd to the ship, where a seat of tapa cloth had been prepared. A service followed in which leading members of the staff took part and I then presented Her Majesty with a copy of the new book, “God’s Way Out.” She accepted it graciously, and asked that, if the name of the boat were changed, her gift in return should be the name “Meline” which means “Peace.”

Our members sent a large feast to the palace. A replica of the ship about ten feet long was beautifully decorated and laden with cakes, pies, and other good things for the Queen’s table. The life-boats were filled with sweets. The Queen was delighted.

The Queen sent back a piece of tapa cloth 200 yards long and 20 feet wide.

This was divided between the Fijian boys, and we also got a piece. We also have a beautiful white mat which came as a gift from the Queen.

The “Meline” is now giving valiant service among the islands of the Tongan group.

The dam across the Yate River, Plaine des Lacs, New Caledonia, which provides the power for the Nickel Co.’s hydro-electric works at Yate, south coast, which is to increase Noumea’s electric supply. At this point the Yate River, second longest in the Colony, enters a deep gorge several miles long before reaching the sea. The Yate works were constructed by a New Zealand-Cornish engineer named Nichols, who was the island’s leading mining engineer prior to World War I.