The Aim
I have tried to make the Papuans real to you by stories of their daily
lives, their vices and their virtues, their many fears and their few
hopes, and want you to understand that they are men and women, and boys
and girls who have their lives to live. They are not “something” to
be laughed at, as many travellers seem to think, or exploited to put
dividends into the pockets of investors in new companies.
I have tried to show you how we are helping the Papuan to live a fuller
and better life than his father did. There is no talk about a finished
article. You cannot make a Christian and a gentleman out of a savage
as you can make a pair of boots, and say as you put them on the shelf,
“There is the finished article worth so much.”
The Papuan may be turned in the right direction, but even then it means a
long stiff climb, with many a backward slip. He needs all the help we can
give him, by preaching, by schools, by industrial training, by constant
watching and advising, even after he has learnt that there is ONE who
came into the world to bring a message and a power that should touch
man’s life at every point.
Some of the men and women I have told you about know this message, and
are trying, as you and I are trying, to live up to their knowledge, but
they deserve your sympathy. It is not an easy matter for them to rise.
I have given you more than one story to show how the call of the old
heathen life is always sounding in their ears and hearts.
To enlist your sympathy and help for those who know a little, and for the
many who remain who have never heard of the message, is the aim of these
Papuan Pictures.
“_Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren,
ye have done it unto Me._”
_Printed by BUTLER & TANNER, Frome and London._