400 Years Later

New BSI Church Where Spanish Cross Stood

From Our Own Correspondent

Honiara, Oct. 20.

THERE is an interesting background to the new Catholic Mission church and presbytery now being erected at Honiara, Nearly 400 years ago (in 1568) Mendana and his Spanish friars erected a cross on the hills adjacent to where Honiara (capital of the Solomons) now stands on the shoreline of Guadalcanal. The cross was destroyed by natives; but, to-day, many of their descendants are members of the Catholic Mission.

Called the Church of the Holy Cross, the new buildings stand somewhere near the site of the original cross on a hill above the main road of Honiara, which has been named Mendana Avenue.

The presbytery is actually the former presbytery which stood in Tulagi (20 miles away) when it was the pre-war seat of government. Intact through Japanese and American bombing, it was used for a time as Japanese headquarters and, later, by the Americans. It has been moved to Honiara and rebuilt by lay brothers of the Marist Mission. Articles of church furnishings removed from the Tulagi Catholic church at the time of the evacuation are being set up in the church of the Holy Cross.

With their two small daughters, Robyn and Gillian, Mr. and Mrs. B. E. Fairfax- Ross, passed through Brisbane by plane recently to their home at Port Moresby, Papua. Mr. Fairfax-Ross has just re turned from a business trip to London.