Wallace DEANE

DEANE, WALLACE (b. Mudgee, NSW, 3 Feb 1878; d. Sydney, NSW, 12 Feb 1952). Methodist missionary in Fiji, pastor and educator.

Son of a coach builder, Wallace Deane was apprenticed to his father as a coach painter. He entered the Methodist ministry in 1903 and trained under E J Rodd at the Theological Institution attached to Newington College. He graduated BA from Sydney University in 1907. In that year he married Elsie Danks, daughter of Benjamin and Emma Danks (q.v.) and went immediately to Fiji where he served until 1916. He was principal of the Davuilevu teacher training institution where his strong disciplinary stand caused friction with both students and colleagues. During his time in Fiji he obtained the London BD and completed an MA thesis (Sydney University 1909) on Fijian customs. He served in Methodist circuits in NSW, becoming president of the NSW Conference in 1937. From 1940 to 1948 he was principal of the Methodist Ladies College, Burwood. An author of anthropological, theological and pastoral books, he also wrote stories for children based on his experiences in Fiji. He held that there was no true education without Christian morality and no Christian morality without the Christian religion.

A Harold Wood, Overseas Missions of the Australian Methodist Church: Fiji (Melbourne, 1978); S & R Coupe, Walk in the Light (Sydney, 1986)

SELECT WRITINGS: The Strange Adventures of a Whale's Tooth (Sydney, 1919); Fijian Society (London, 1921); The Minister Among his People (London, 1927); The Development of the Supernatural in Human Experience (London, nd); (ed) In Wild New Britain (Sydney, 1933); A Hundred Years in Fiji (with J W Burton) (London, 1936); Three Comrades in Fiji (London, 1939); The Personality of Jesus (London, 1948)

MICHAEL HORSBURGH