Alexander Don

After several months teaching he heard that the church needed someone to go to Canton (Guangzhou), China to learn Cantonese in order to do missionary work with the Chinese immigrants on the goldfields of Otago.

In 1879 he resigned from teaching and went to Canton, returning in 1881 to study to become a Presbyterian minister at the Theological Hall, Knox College, Dunedin.

[1] He began what he called the inland tours around Central Otago and Southland, each a journey of almost 2,000 miles, much of which he did by foot visiting the widely scattered Chinese miners.

His mission did not meet with great success, but his careful documentation of these journeys proved an extraordinarily valuable contribution to the knowledge of New Zealand history.

Don's fundraising and the goodwill of the returned Chinese were factors in the successful establishment of the Canton Villages Mission three years later.