THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4675, 17 March 1924, Page 1

THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.

RELIGIOUS LIFE lA’ SAMOA. MORE SUPPORT NEEDED. The necessity for more physical, financial, and spiritual support in the conduct of mission work in Polynesia was urged by the Bishop of that territory, the Right Rev. L. S. Kempthorne, hi the course of an address before a large congregation in St. Peter’s Church at Wellington recently.

Speaking of the religious aspect of life in Samoa, Bishop Kemptliorne stated that the surviving oiiginal ’nhabitants who constituted about ha f the population were faithful Christians, although no traditions lay behind their belief, and many of the oid •superstitions still remained. Various nationalities had migrated to Pili, and at the present time Indians predominated, with a population of 60.000. The whites numbered 400 U, and the natives instinctively regarded everyone of that number as a missioner. whether he wished it or not, but in actual fact there were only two clergymen in the diocese. A great work lay ahead in the islands, but to accomplish success in the spreading of the gospel through such a vast territory, with the large number of nonChristians the Indian population represented, more support was needed — more men, more financial aid, and more prayer. Their first big opportunity was the chance to educate about 2000 Indian children, but that work could only succeed, with the aid of young men willing to accept the call to a far away land.