Florence Smith, first CMS missionary from New Zealand to go to India
Florence Smith, born in Nelson in 1872, was the first Church Missionary Society missionary from New Zealand to go to India in 1899.
On one occasion she is reputed to have walked thirty-two miles through country rich in tigers, panthers and wolves, to nurse a sick catechist. As the first white woman to be seen in the region she made the most of her opportunity, reputedly speaking at one time to 3,000 people in a fortnight.
The photograph album(which was donated by descendant Gilbert Smith) documents Florence Smith’s time in the Khammam District in the state of Andhra Pradesh on the south-east coast of India. Smith lived there for some thirty-eight years. Included in the album is a chart of the Telugu alphabet, a Dravidian language spoken mainly in Andhra Pradesh.
There are also letters written by Florence Smith from Nelson in 1936, which are part of the New Zealand Church Missionary Society’s archive (ANG 143).
