THE FRENCH IN MADAGASCAR.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1164, 23 October 1883, Page 3

THE FRENCH IN MADAGASCAR.

(From the special correspondent of the Melbourne Argus.) (Continued.)

With regard to tta missionary question the opinion of many in Mauritius, as indeed of some of the best statesmen in England, is that some of these reverend gentlemen are rather too much alive to their own material welfare as compared with the spiritual wants of their flocks. There have been several accusations made against missionaries with respect to trading, and it has even been hinted that in some instances they have countenanced slaverv in Madagascar. But with all this there are still of course many earnest, excellent men, whose lives are really devoted to the creat work they are set to undertake. The following extract from a report by Admiral W Gore Jones, 0.K., Admiral Hewett's predecessor on this station, was recently laid before the House of Commons, and furnishes interesting information on this subject. Admiral W Gore Jones says : ' 1 would here make a few remarks on the mission work of Madagascar. 1 When the present Quern and Prime Minister embraced Christianity the Hoova people became Christians too. The work of the missionaries thenceforward bpcame rather one of education than of conversion, and they seem to have set themselves to that task with great earnestness ; and I was fairly astonished at the amount of knowledge possessed by some of the pupils, botii in booklearning and in some of the arts and sc'ences, especially in drawing. ' The English Bishop has established a college, where young men are under-

"■ointr a classical education to fit tlimi for holy orders hereafter, Tlio mis—sionnries are divided into several sects . —l, Chnrcli of England ;2, Church <>< Rome ; 3, Independents ; 4, Friends ; 5, Norwegian Lutheran. The Independents of the London Mission ha<! possession first of the ground, and although by no means maintaining their tenets about church government, are the favourites at, court.

< The Prime Minister is too shnwd a man not to Fee the advantage of keeping the Queen the head of the church, and nothing of a religions character goes on except under his surveillance. ' The Hoovas are a talking people, and as the Independents permit any man to preach who is capable of doing so, they prefer that sect to any other, and they are all preachers, the Prime Minister approving of this, as it is a sort ol safety-valve, because public discussion on political matters is not allowed. ' The church of Rome is doing a silent woHc, and establishing a plant superior to any other. 'The Roman Catholic cathedral is a building that would grace a European town. The fathers are Jesuits, and chiefly French, and they have numerous sisters to assist them.

' The Norwegian Lutherans are doing a great work, and have 17 missionaries down south. ' The great fault of the missionaries generally is that they are over-burdened with family cares, wives and children. They consequently congregate wherever they arc most comfortable, and while the island at large is neglected, the capital swarms with them.

' The Roman Catholic missionary, as a rule, never returns again to his own country. The Protestant missionaries seem to think of nothing else but getting home, especially the women, and the latter make no secret of their own unfitness for the work.'

Putting the missionary question on one side for the present, I may briefly allude to the feeling in Mauritius that Madagascar, with its noble pastures and rich mineral resources, would afford a splendid field for the ambitious youth of this natumlly-restricted island. Hoovas discountenance anything like immigration, and state as their reason that they do not want to encourage the settlement in their midst of indigent persons ; but the Mauritians, on the other hand, will not permit such an appellation as applicable to their young men in search of a future. Their lads, they say, may not be overburdened with capital, but- they are far from being paupers, and are possessed of that great equiralent lor coin—energy. If the Hoovas would but give way and favor the young Mauritians, there would soon be a number of Madagascar squatters of the typo familiar to us in Australia. Another burning question is the prohibitory duty imposed by the Hoovas on rum. i'hey state that their sole object is the prevention of drunkenness, and we cannot but applaud such a sentiment on the part of the noble savage. A glance at Mauritian statistics shows that last year no less than 2,602,848 litres of rum, of the value or about £40,000, were exported to Madagascar. It is, therefore, an item worthy of consideration, albeit I am given to understand that Mauritian rum is by no means of a high quality. It seems that whereYer the sugar manufactured is good—and Mauritian sugar is probably the best in the vrorld—the rum as a natural sequence is bad. In fact the rum is here made from molasses, from which all the pure saccharine matter is well nigh, extracted, In .Reunion, where sugar is not of such a superior standard, the rum, being made from better material, is par consequence of a much higher quality.

(To be Continued)