John Francis Goldie (1870 – 1955) was an Australian Methodist missionary who founded the Methodist Mission in the New Georgia Islands of the Solomon Islands. He served as chairman of the Solomon Island District of the Methodist Mission from 1902 until his retirement in 1951.
Early Life and Ministry
Goldie was born in 1870 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. In 1897, he entered the Methodist ministry in Queensland, where he served as a pastor for five years. On 13 April 1901, he married Helena Teague in Queensland.
Missionary Work in the Solomon Islands
In 1901, the Australian Government enacted the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901, which included provisions for the deportation of Melanesian labourers. In 1902, Goldie travelled to Roviana in New Georgia, Solomon Islands, accompanied by returning Solomon Islanders, including Sam Angarau. The Methodist Mission in New Georgia was established by Goldie in 1902, along with S. R. Rooney and a lay missionary, J. R. Martin, a carpenter by trade.
Goldie was appointed chairman of the Solomon Island District of the Australasian Methodist Missionary Society in 1902. He travelled through the Western Solomon Islands aboard the two-masted mission schooner Tandanya. When the Methodist Church of New Zealand took over the Solomon Islands District in 1922, Goldie became a minister of the New Zealand Conference, and he served as president of the New Zealand Conference in 1929.
Influence and Controversy
Goldie dominated the mission and gained the loyalty of Solomon Islander members of his church. His influence in the Western Solomon Islands was so extensive that a contemporary witticism described the region as being governed by "three Gs" — in descending order of importance: Goldie, God, and Government.
Goldie was noted for a reputation of procrastination and an egocentric desire to maintain control. His abrasive personality brought him into conflict with J. R. Metcalfe, another strong-willed missionary who succeeded Goldie as chairman of the Methodist Mission in the Solomons in 1951. His relationship with colonial administrators of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate was also fraught with difficulty due to his effective control over the Western Solomon Islands.
Medical Mission
Dr. Edward Sayers worked at the Methodist mission from 1927 to 1934, establishing hospitals at Gizo, Munda, and Vella Lavella in the Western Province.
Later Life and Death
Goldie retired in 1951 after 49 years of service. He died in 1955 in Melbourne, Australia, at the age of 84 or 85.
