MISSIONARIES AS EMPIRE BUILDERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 265, 18 March 1911, Page 9

MISSIONARIES AS EMPIRE BUILDERS.

WHAT \\% OWE TO TiVtl JrWKERS. It, (nay not be generally known, but it i* none the less a fact, that we owe several of our recent acquisitions of territory to the work of influence of missionaries, Al' English journal gives a hatch (if illustrations from the latest re. cniiting-ground, Africa.

Tlio expansion of South Africa is large*' ly the Work of tlie m'iss'idnaries. In iiwuanalaml, tlie northern route was for a long time kept open solely by their influence. Some of the earliest roads were known as "Missionary roads," and many place-names preserve the memory of individuals.

Indirectly, the missionaries account for the Transvaal and Orange Hiver provinces, our latest acquisitions. For, though we had to pay £2W,OUO,OOQ for the war of conquest, in contrast to the mexpciisivenoss of missionary labor, it was nevertheless to the latter that the great Boer trek of 1830 was due, which resulted in the founding of the Republics. For had not Dr. Philip been so doughty a champion of the natives, the Boers would never have moved out.

Of the great achievements of Livingstone, it is unnecessary to speak; but we must not forget that they opened the country to successive incursions of Englishmen, and that of John Mackenzie, the missionary, was one of the first to follow him. It was Mackenzie who saved the native states from extinction by the Boers, and, as Deputy-Commissioner of Bechuanaland, helped to found that province. It has been said that if his advice had been taken the Boer war would have been averted. And a. high authority has added that if the missionaries of Christ had preceded those of Empire the whole of the nine Kaffir wars might also have been saved.

The Moffat Treaty of 1888 with the Matabeles laid the foundation of Rhodesia for us. Yet that treaty was the work of a missionary, the Rev. J. S. Moffat, son of the famous Dr. Moffatt.

Basutoland, the Switzerland of South Africa, we owe to a French missionary, Coillard. Moshesh, the able Basuto chief, governed with a Cabinet of French missionaries. After inflicting a severe defeat on our forces in 1852, he wrote to their commander a letter in which he offered peace, saying, "I am aihamed of what happened yesterday. Let it be forgotten. Oh, my master, I am still your man. I am still the child of the Queen." After such a politic and Christian epistle it is not surprising to find that in due course Basutoland was received under our protection on the most favorable terms. The Basutos are said by Bryce to have made greater progress in givilisation than any other Kaffir race. Their imports in 1903 were £289,790. Barotseland, also, now known as Northwest Rhodesia, is 'due to French missiosaries. Though it is as big as the German Empire it did not cost a single life. Coillard advised Lewanika, tlie king, to put himself under the protection of some European nation, and with great disinterested recommended tlie British. Convinced by past experience of the good judgment of the missionary, Lewanika agreed, and in consequence his country became a British Protectorate in 1890.

Xorth-Eaat Rhodesia, again, we owe to Stewart of Lovedalc. By his exploration of the Shire country, he supplied Lord Salisbury with the information on which lie formed the British Central Africa Protectorate. By the founding of Livingstonia lie did much more still to establish our authority there. And as it was we were only just in time to anticipate the great partition of the continent, and to resist the Portuguese claim to the Nynssa region as well. As Cecil Rhodes once said. "We owe all Rhodesia to you Scotch missionaries." Or, as Stead more dramatically put it, "The frontier has advanced on the stepping-stones of missionary graves."