Tuatua-mou (Truth), Australasian Division

By Milton Hook

Milton Hook, Ed.D. (Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, the United States). Hook retired in 1997 as a minister in the Greater Sydney Conference, Australia. An Australian by birth Hook has served the Church as a teacher at the elementary, academy and college levels, a missionary in Papua New Guinea, and as a local church pastor. In retirement he is a conjoint senior lecturer at Avondale College of Higher Education. He has authored Flames Over Battle Creek, Avondale: Experiment on the Dora, Desmond Ford: Reformist Theologian, Gospel Revivalist, the Seventh-day Adventist Heritage Series, and many magazine articles. He is married to Noeleen and has two sons and three grandchildren.

First Published: January 29, 2020

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The Cook Islands Maori or Rarotongan-language¹ magazine, Tua tua –mou [Truth], commenced publication in 1907 and ceased around 1947. It was produced monthly for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Cook Islands.

At the annual meeting of the Eastern Polynesian Mission in June 1906, it was voted to begin the publication of a periodical for the Cook Islands.² Albert Piper was the director of the Cook Islands Mission at the time and organized its production which began in January 1907. It was a four-leaf (eight-paged) paper entitled Tuatua-mou, meaning “Truth” in the island language.³ From her home in Wahroonga, New South Wales, Frances Waugh served as editor and translator of the monthly magazine.⁴ She had learned the national language as a teenager on Rarotonga. The early issues ran approximately one thousand copies,⁵ but circulation doubled within a few years. It was printed at Avondale Press in Cooranbong, New South Wales.⁶

During the earliest years, Waugh also edited Pacific Island books, tracts, and three other Pacific Island periodicals in addition to Tuatua Mou. When the printing of the periodicals was transferred to Rarotonga during the First World War, missionary George Sterling assumed the editorial work⁷ and William Howse operated the press.⁸ The 1920s found Sterling (1920, 1927-1929)⁹ and another missionary, Henry Hill, (1921-1926) acting as editors.¹⁰ Harold Wicks served as editor during the 1930s.¹¹

Frank Lyndon, the long-time superintendent of the Eastern Polynesian Mission, established a printshop at Papeete, Tahiti, in the early 1920s,¹² to which the production of the Tuatua-mou moved from. Agnes Deane, who had been working in the Rarotongan printshop, also moved to Tahiti after marrying Philip Poroi, and cared for the printshop in Papeete.¹³

The Tuatua-mou remained an eight-page monthly throughout its lifespan. The last time it was listed in the Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook was 1947.¹⁴ Like the other periodicals printed for the Pacific Islands, it was highly regarded and influential in disseminating the Adventist message.

Sources

“A few weeks ago…” Union Conference Record, February 11, 1907.

Aitken, J[ohn] D. K. “Avondale School Press.” Union Conference Record, October 24, 1910.

Lyndon, F[rank] E. “The Eastern Polynesian Mission.” Union Conference Record, October 24, 1910.

Lyndon, F[rank] E. “Eastern Polynesian Mission.” Australasian Record, October 21, 1918.

Lyndon, F[rank] E. “Eastern Polynesian Mission.” Australasian Record, October 30, 1922.

“Nominations.” Union Conference Record, September 21, 1908.

Piper, A[lbert] H. “Annual Meeting of the Eastern Polynesian Mission.” Union Conference Record, August 20, 1906.

Schowe, C[harles] H. “En Route to the General Conference.” Australasian Record, July 10, 1922.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association. Years 1913-1947.

“Sister Agnes Deane…” Australasian Record, April 18, 1921.

Sterling, Geo[rge] L. “The Rarotongan Mission.” Union Conference Record, October 24, 1910.

Sterling, Geo[rge] L. “A Greater Interest Than Ever Before.” Australasian Record, July 20, 1925.

Stewart, A[ndrew] G. "Visit to the Society Islands–Part 1." Australasian Record, August 21, 1933.

Waugh, F[rances] (N). “Our Island Papers.” Union Conference Record, October 4, 1909.

Notes

“A few weeks ago…” Union Conference Record, February 11, 1907, 8.↩
A[lbert] H. Piper, "Annual Meeting of the Eastern Polynesian Mission," Union Conference Record, August 20, 1906, 6.↩
"A few weeks ago..." Union Conference Record, February 11, 1907, 8.↩
"Nominations," Union Conference Record, September 21, 1908, 41.↩
F[rances] (N.) Waugh, "Our Island Papers," Union Conference Record, October 4, 8.↩
J[ohn] D. K. Aitken, "Avondale School Press," Union Conference Record, \ October 24, 1910, 34.↩
"Rarotongan," Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1918), 222.↩
F[rank] E. Lyndon, "Eastern Polynesian Mission," Australasian Record, October 21, 1918, 51-53.↩
"Rarotongan," Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1920), 258.↩
"Rarotongan," Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1921), 192.↩
"Rarotongan," Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1930), 338.↩
C[harles] H. Schowe, "En Route to the General Conference," Australasian Record, July 10, 1922, 5.↩
A[ndrew] G. Stewart, "Visit to the Society Islands–Part 1," Australasian Record, August 21, 1933, 4-5.↩
"Rarotongan," Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1947), 310.↩