MISSIONS IN SAMOA. IMPRESSIONS OF A LAYMAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 15

MISSIONS IN SAMOA. IMPRESSIONS OF A LAYMAN.

At the annual meeting of the Otago . Auxiliary of the London iiissionarv Society held op Tuesday, 10th met., Mr Robert JBiown, of Oamaru, gave an interesting description of a visit he had recently paid to the ©ocpty's station in Samoa. Preparatory to entering upon his address he "raid that it was in tihe month of jSepronbor, 1877, that the auxiliary was formed as the result of a meeting held in the 3loray Place Church. This meeting W as inspired Iby the pacing through Dunedin of th© j Rev. James Chalmers, then on his way to New Guinea for tho first time. At that first meeting- Mr Brown was appointed secretary, and he continued to hold that oftiee for 19 consecutive sears— till he removed from Dunedin. In the course of that eecreta-ryehip, he said, he had formed many friendships among che various missionaries who visited Dunedin frorii time to time, and he had sometimes been asked to" visit them at their homes. From various reasons he had never been able to accept these invitations till this year, when he felt himself at liberty to accept an invitation outstanding from the Rev. J. E. Newell, of Samoa. On April of this year he had accordingly left Auckland with his daughter, en route for Samoa. Apia was duly reached, and interspersed in Mr Brown's narrative from this point weire many references to missions, which will be read with interest by -fhoss interested in the progress of the evangelisation of the native races of the South Sea Islands. Proceeding inland from Apia for 12 miles, Malua was reached— Malua being the resi- { denes of the Bey. J. Newell, one of the London Missionary Society's missionaries lon the island. Is the course of the drive to this place Mr Brown remarked that never even for about five minutes were they out of eight x)f native villages— so thickly populated was the place. Each village possessed its whitewashed church, as no village would be content without one. Each little church possessed its own native pastor, the work done by whom as a general class Mr Brown characterised as " well done." The minimum salary that he heard of being padd was £10 per year and the largest £65. He had often been delighted to toe present at some of the native services i« some of tihe small country churches and see the closeness of the attention with which the people listened to the minister and the impassioned way in which the pastor forced home the truth to the congregation, although he (Mr Brcwn) was unable to understand a- word that was being said. j On reaching Malua they found that they , had been fortunate enough to strike Fono week, as they had deahed to do. Fono j week corresponded to the annual meeting ,of religious denominations, and consisted j of all the pUstors of the churches throughout Samoa meeting together at headquarters at Malua to receive reports of past work and consult with regard to the work of the future. These mem gathered not only froni Samoa, but from all the surrounding" islands, and their numbers were so great that whereas in ordinary timee the- population of Malua was from 900 to 1000, at the time of the Fono meetings it rose to well over 3000. . Mr Brown attended many of tho meetings, which were bald in Jubilee Hall, this bemgala-rge hall which had been erected by the natives themseh'-es at a cost of £2000. It was c-apable of holding ov«.r 1000 persone. Mr Brown then gave an interesting description of the meeting which he attended, desorib1 ing the various classes present. — the pastors in their white uniforms, the missionaries and their wives, the students from the Malua Institute, the delegates from each village church, and so forth. The topic on the occasion of his visit was " Spirit Worship," which, he said, considering that after centuries of civilisation it was still to be found in Scotland, they were not to be surprised to learn, existed still in Samoa after only three generations of Christianity. One man, in plain and clear language, had told the meeting that he had several times , seen his grandmother since her death, and was not to be moved from his assertions. The missionaries did their best to ' explain these matters, but their existence etill was a strong argument for the neees1 sity of still maintaining in these islands Exirope&n missionaries with ' trained and ' cultivated minds who would be able to giikle ' the natives and >ho\v them where they were going wrong 1 . Malua Institute, the society's , college for the training of the native paetore, was visited. This was founded over 60 years ago by Drs Nisbet and Turner, • and tho fact that never 6noe then had the constitution required any amendment eufii- '. ciently indicated the wisdom with which the foundations had bsen laid. Those to bs 1 trained as ministers and pastors were care- ! fully selected from ' tho high schools anoT given a complete course covering four yea.ro' study at the institute. At the end ol that time they had to pass their final examina-' tion before going forth to the work. It was upon these men that the' building up of a native ministry for the natives depended. Not only Samoa, but the islands | to the north-west were supplied with pas- '' tors and teachers, and in addition 60 of the pupils had volunteered for .service in New Guinea, and come of these had suffered martyrdom. In addition to visiting Malua, Mr Brown went to Ceulumoega, where Mr Hiil was in charge, and had also pawl Mr Morley, the medical missionary on another island, a visit. In connection with this branch of the work Mr Brown endorsed the new recognised fact that this braVica of ' the equipment offers probably th>e best means of approaching and entering the heart of" the natives. In one case he said there was an island of over 900 inhabitants without the services of a medical man. In closing his address Mr Brown made reference to schemes adopted by the missionaries to maintain the standard of efficiency on their stations. Tho directors of the societyhad found the claims upon them so great in other directions that although now the need of up-keep was greater than ever it had been, the amount allocated by headquarters for the upkeep of Malua Institute was smaller then it had been In order to meet this diflfculty the plan had been adopted of taking over some lands n^ar the mission houses and allowing those nathes who were willing to contribute but who had no money with which to do so to contribute in labour by attending to plantations of cocca<beans. It wae estimated that in seven yeai-s' time, when the crop became available, a. sum of from £300 to £350 would! be realised, but in the meantimo the burden of finding the rent (£2O) per year was entirely borne \ t>£ the missionaries themselves. Mr Brown

T eaid he considered this was & tax upon j their riender resources,- and he appealed ! for assistance towards providing the rent of the land for four j-ears, he himself being willing to contribute -£5 yearly to the' object. A cordial vote of thanks was acrorded Mr Brown for his remarks. The business transacted was thft flection .•of office-bearers for the' ensuing year. ThTs"^ resulted bs follows, the suggestions of the committee being endorsed en bloc: — Presi-, dent, Rev. G. Heighway ; vice-president, Rev. W. S. Fernie; secretary, Rev. T. Perkins; treasurer, Mr P. Bajr; secretary of the Watchers' Band, Mrs Heighway ; elected members of the committee — Messrs J. Hercus, J. A. Wilkinson, H. E. Lawrence, and Misses Knight and Begsj. The Secretary read a letter from Professor Gilray i-e<gTetting that owing tf> pressure of University work he would, be unable to continue to act as president of the society. The Rev. W. M. Grant acted as chairman, and in the course of his introductory remarks 6a id their special attention should be given by members to the Million Shillings Fund inaugurated by the Rev. "Waidlaw Thompson.