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Description
“Aniwa - Church built by Rev John G. Paton, with aid of natives.” Exterior view of thatched missionary church with two indigenous people standing to the front. After fleeing to New South Wales in 1862, John Gibson Paton arrived back in the New Hebrides in 1865 with his second wife and two recruits for the Presbyterian mission. There he instigated an appeal by the missionaries for the punishment of the Tannese for their killing of British subjects. In August 1865 the Curaçoa shelled villages at Port Resolution and its sailors made an armed landing. This use of naval force to protect the mission was widely reported in the Australian colonial press and Paton was much criticized for his role. In 1866 Paton was appointed by the Presbyterian Church of Victoria as its first missionary to the New Hebrides. After the events of 1865 it was not possible for him to return to his former field on Tanna, and he was therefore sent to the small island of Aniwa which was to be Paton's base for the next 15 years. The whole population of Aniwa, numbering about two hundred, eventually adopted Christianity.
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