The paper-knife is one of the only surviving artefacts from Mrs Calder’s Bible Class
“One of the most difficult problems a parish clergyman has to solve is, how to interest the elder boys of a Sunday School in the work of God’s Church” proclaims an article from the November 1893 issue of the Church Gazette.
Lucy Calder was a prominent figure at the All Saints Church in Ponsonby, who spent many years teaching Bible Class and raising funds for various causes including for the Melanesian Mission. She was the wife of Archdeacon William Calder who was the Vicar for All Saints from 1893 to 1919 and, for many years, the editor for the Melanesian Mission journal, Southern Cross Log. Their son was the Reverend Jasper Calder who founded the Auckland City Mission.
On this occasion the problem of how to interest older children in the Church was answered by Mrs Calder’s Bible Class, which had undertaken the task of carving items from the wood of the Southern Cross III, a three-mastered schooner that served the Melanesian Mission from 1874 to 1891.
This carved wooden paper-knife is one surviving example of these artifacts carved by Mrs. Calder’s Bible Class. The article also mentions that “very artistic scenes of Norfolk Island are painted upon most of these articles”, which is missing from the paper-knife held in our collection.
This knife was donated to the John Kinder Theological Library archives by F. M. Doig from Ellerslie who described it as “being amongst my wife’s family treasures.” It has been inscribed with the following: “O kano mornkel apen (Mota for) in rememberance of Bishop Patteson and Bishop Selwyn.” Mota is a language originating from Mota Island in Vanuata and was propagated by the Anglican missionaries who tried to establish it as a lingua franca for the Melanesian Mission.