First Fijians honoured
The National, Thursday 11th April, 2013
A COMMEMORATION service to honour the sacrifice of Fijian missionaries who brought the good news to East New Britain 134 years ago was held last Saturday.
It has also been agreed that a monument will be built to mark this vital phase of the church’s history. It will be a place tourists can visit.
A service was held at Kabakada last Saturday to commemorate the day.
A four-member working committee from the Kabakada circuit of the United church in the New Britain region has been tasked to plan the construction of the
monument.
It will be built at Vunela where the missionaries served before they moved to Tungnaparau where they were murdered during the course of their missionary work.
Vunela is also where the missionaries’ pet dog was buried. The blood-smeared dog was the one which brought signs of the murder of the last of the four missionaries to the people.
Development of the site at Vunela will cost an estimated K50,000. This will be raised by the committee from the Kabakada circuit through church’s executive
council.
Plans to erect the monument at Vunela were revealed when the United church followers at the Kabakada circuit commemorated the 134th anniversary of the murder of the Fijian missionaries.