AN ISLAND DIOCESE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1637, 2 January 1913, Page 3

AN ISLAND DIOCESE.

AND ITS BISHOP. SOME FACTS ABOUT TONGA.' The official head of an Anglican diocese as big in one respect as it is tiny in another arrived in Wellington yesterday by the Tahiti. This -was Bishop Willis. of Tonga, who is about'to''return to his diocese after a (our whicli carried him as fur as England. Tho kingdom of Tonga, Bishop Willis told a reporter who interviowed him yesterday, has three main divisions widely separated from one another.' /Tonga Tabu is tho scat of Government. Haapai - lies 120 miles away, and Vavau is 80 miles distant. Most of tho , islands are low-lying coral reefs, with.no great pretensions to beauty. Vavau 13 an, exception, being of hilly formation. 'Die islands liavo a population numbering about 21,000, nnd Bishop Willis considers that they would easily accommodate many times that number. Tho Anglican Church was.established in Tonga ten. years ago, when Bishop Willis was transferred to that group from Honolulu. So far no very rapid progress' has been made.. There are in all tivo Anglican churches in the group, and one small school. Tho staff of tho Bishop, consists of one priest, a deacon, and several lay readers. The priest is a Chinaman, the.; deacon a native Tongan, ordained last y-'ar, and tho lay readers are also Tongans. Tho Bishop hopes soon to obtain tho services of a European assistant, and another project ho has in hand is the establishment of a boarding-school. Owing to the ' great distance which separates the islands from one another, it is difficult to convey instruction by meanii of local schools. ■ Tho policy of his Church in Tonga, Bishop Willis stated, was to abstain from any attempt at proselytising. All who came to 6eek the ministrations of the Church were welcomed, but no attempt was made to draw sway converts from other denominations working in the islands. ',' '■'.:■'-- There are in all four regular churches working in Tonga. The Soman Catholics maintain a Bishop and a strong body of clergy, and have established a number of schools. Bishop Willis remarked ' that the Roman Catholics were doing good work all through the Pacific. The other Churches in Tonga aro the Weslcyan and an offshoot from this denomination, known as tho Free Church. Tho existence of the latter institution is due to .the efforts of the late Rev. Shirley Baker, 0 clergyman who became Premier of Tonga. The Seventh Day Adventists and the Mormons have also established themselves: in the group.. , Bishop Willis has been so long absent, from his diocese that he is not conversant with the latest political developments mTonga,'but he is of opinion that tho Ton-, gnus desire to maintain their present standing as a kingdom under British proand the impression'lis gained on a recent visit to Loudon was that tho Imperial authorities have no desiro to alter the status of the island kingdom.

The native Tongans, Bishop Willis considers, have groat possibilities of develop r meat, and possess a high standard of intelligence. Eighty years ogo' they were given ovor to warlike pursuits; cannibali ism , had some hold amongst. them, and they were guilty, of human, sacrifices and other deviltries. ; All this'has now been changed. "Life aiid property are safer in Tonga," -Bishop Willis'j declared, '"than anywhere else in- the world." General standards of mortality among the Tongans," ho added, wereireasonably- high.. There had not beeri-u single! murder ; nor any ssrious crime during the ten yearß ho had spent in Toiißfl.'.' -.-. .;. . , . As' to the'education of the ',natives, Bishop Willis remarked that the local college had hitherto .paid too much attention to- higk'er''mathematios and-similar sub-' jee-ts,. with results not:very good for.tho natives. Their .horizon being a;ccsEaxily ■narrow, they jwero apt to become vainly self-conc-eited. with a smattering of higher education, .'and to imbibo inflated and lopsided ideas. Latterly, however, efforts have beoo.-'.made to .instruct the natives on moro practical linos.*.' Classes in carpentry ha'd' been,- started, and it'was hoped'to go further on similar lines.. .-.,.•..'.... - ".. T .. ..' The .islands ar<o healthy, cases of. fever 1 being of rare occurrence,, but the population i-emainsabout'ofcatiohary.'' The. principal products are copra and oranges. Owing to the'orange trees brooming infected with fly, the fruit is'at-prescnt excluded, from New Zealand, and Bishop '• Willis stated that the.oranges:\rero now being allowed; to rot "on ~tho ground, no; sys-' tcmatic attempt being made to get rid of, the post.-'"' '• ■■•■■' '"• ' '■:"'". ■" " Bishop Willis, who is accompanied by his wife, left his. island diocese in April last tc\ attend tho fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Anglican Church; at Honolulu.' The first Bishop of Hono-' luluwas Bishop Stnlcy, who founded the dioo3so in 1862. He was succeeded by Bishop Willis, who remained in control' from 1872 until 1902, when the Sandwich Islands were annexed by the United States. Bishop Willis then, resigned; in order that tho diocese might bo taken'over by a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America, ■ Bishop Willis and Mrs. Willis will leave to-Jay for Dunedin.' They will leave Auckland for Tonga on January 28.