Page 8 Advertisements Column 5

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 268, 22 March 1911, Page 8

Tn Fijian society, as was to.he gleaned from a discussion which took place at Ihc "Methodist, Conference in Melbourne, it is fatal not to lie connected with a clmrch. Religion is all the rage. The descendants of many generation* of cannibals have developed into the strictest I Sabbatarians on the face of the earth, and their manifest pious observances are extremely edifying. But, as was confessed by li'ev. T. liutchcr. the religious native is by 110 means what he ought to be ethically, lie easily lapses into immorality, is untruthful, and is no more punctilious in the discharge of his financial obligations than some conscienceless white people. Moreover, he is wont, on occasion, to take a holiday from his new-found worship, and to ' hark back to heathen observances. A church member has been known to lie down and die 1 out of sheer disgust in finding himself bewitched in quite the old-time way, notwithstanding his utmost precautions, All of which shows that the Kijians have still to evolve a. good working moral system. The present task of the church in Fiji is, in the words of Mr. Butcher, the creation of a native conscience.