Shortage of Mission Staff

Hampers Methodist Effort in BSI

THE serious shortage of mission staff is causing grave concern to the Methodist Church of NZ, which for many years has been responsible for Methodist missionary activity in the Central Solomon Islands, Bougainville and Buka.

In a recent appeal to New Zealand Methodists to volunteer for missionary work in the BSI, the Rev. E. T. Olds, President of the Methodist Conference of NZ wrote as follows: “With the departure of Dr. A. G. Rutter from the Solomon Islands, the Methodist mission is left without a doctor. This means drastic curtailment of the healing .ministry. His place must be filled.

“The pending return of the Rev. A. W.

Silvester from Vella Lavella. the need, in the not distant future, of finding a suc cessor to the Rev. J. F. Goldie (for many years chairman of the Solomon Islands Methodist Mission district), and now the illness of the Rev. J. R. Metcalfe, of Choiseul, all confront us with a situation of utmost urgency.

“This is the decisive hour for our mission in the Solomons, and we must take swift action. Ministers, nurses and teachers are needed immediately.”

The Rev. J. R. Metcalfe had to leave Choiseul to undergo an operation in Mel bourne. He was reported to have made an excellent recovery and hoped to return with Mrs. Metcalfe to work on Choiseul about the end of August.

The difficulty which the NZ Methodist Mission is finding in securing volunteer doctors for the BSI is an indication of the post-war shortage of medical men in NZ.

In the Dominion, where a Labour Gov ernment introduced free hospital treat ment and free visits to doctors in 1939, there are insufficient doctors to cope with the rush of patients. It is claimed that busy doctors in private practice are earn ing very large incomes.

Young medicos may prefer affluence in NZ to poverty in the BSI.