[ARNHEM LAND] The Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia Systematic Giving League. Systematic Giving Box.

[Sydney] : The Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia, circa 1920. Tin collection box with hinged lid, 130 x 80 x 20 mm, lettering on the lid; some oxidisation, overall in very good condition.

Wesleyan Methodism is generally considered to have formally been established in Australia in 1815 with the arrival of clergyman Samuel Leigh, although there were lay preachers who had been active since the late eighteenth century.

The Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia was associated with a number of missions in Western Australia, western and northern Queensland, and the north of Australia from 1916 to the 1930s. These missions included Goulburn Island, Milinginmbi and Elcho Island. The mission to the Yolngu people at Milingimbi in Eastern Arnhem Land was begun in 1923 and continued operating up until 1974. Other missions were also established in the 1930s in Yirrkala and Caledon Bay. In the mid 1930s the Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia became known as the Methodist Overseas Mission.

Another example of this Giving Box held in the Uniting Church Archives (Melbourne) contains a card with the following printed note:

“This recently discovered Genuine Antique Tin from the first years of this century was produced to support missionaries when their stipend was less than 200 pounds per year. It is being used in 1972 to help raise stipends above the present $2066”.