The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-02-06
The wesleyans in Fiji.

selves, ~ tats article, OF valuable and authentic in
fotEn afinp rs 10 the social condition u the native
people, which We fad in the oago N. HTlHrss.
OF Dec 70, Summarized from the proceedings Of the
Wesleyan annual district meeting. held at Bau, the
former capital Of Thakemhau.
The meeting lasted twelve days. anl was ATTENDED
by ten out Of thirteen Wesleyan ministers at work
in the Fiji Islands Three were unavOidably absent
on duty in different parts Of the group. la addition
TO these European ministers there were twenty-six
native preachers snd a large number OF native
c~a,echists sad candidates, for whom the exiension Of
the work among new tribes creates an ever-inereAs-
ing demand. At this Conference. for example. q
native missionary and a few eatechisls were detailed
for Rotumah. Arrangements were also made to
obtain two more European missionaries for Fiji and
Rotumah, and TO extend the operations Of the Wes-
leyan Society TO the New Britain and New Ireland
Groups, which are now sunk in utter savagery.
The organisation Of the Wesleyan Society is so
little understood that a rough outline may enable
readers better to understand its proceedings. The
Circuit is the elementary unit. and is in charge Of a
missionary. A certain number Of these Circuits form
a District, and the Districts. in their turn, send dele
gates to the Conference. Thus there are the British
Conference, the French, the Irish. the Canadian. the
American, and the Australian Conferences. The
Fiji District is in connection with one Of the Austria
Ian Conferences, that for Sydney and Queensland.
of which Sydney is the headquarters. The Annual
District Meeting at Bau, to which we are now refer
ring. occupied itself no; only with the religious wants
of he natives as heretofore. bot with those Of their
increasing white congregations. The education Of
both natives and whites was also seriously considered,
and what appear admirable measures were carried
to aid this object. The wesleyans have been for
forty years at work in FIJI. They found it sunk in
the lowest barbarism, and vice, They have succeed
ed in suppressing child-murder and cannibalism in
every part Of the group excepting the mountainous
and inaccessible regions Of the two big islands.
Even in them they have succeeded with many of the
mountain tribes, whom they can now approach
through the recently conquered country at the head
of the Rewa. Ba, and Nayua rivers. Their expendi-
ture for 1878 was only Go ,460, of which eS, $40 was
from the parent society, and 81 800 from native
contributions. They have in FIJI 1880 Sunday
schools, with 2,948 native teachers. Their day
schools number 1892. with 2.742 native school
masters and AZ ,S5S scholars. The churches shew a
roll of I22,526 attendants, all of whom are, at least
nonmially, Christians and abjurers of Club-law,
C~hild-murder and Cannibalism. The whole popula-
ton of FIJI is not much over 10000, so that after
deducting the Wesleyan church attendants, the few
thousand Roman Catholics. and the small number of
any other denomination. it will be safe to assert that
the absolute heathens and cannibals still to be
reached do not exceed $1,000 in both the large islands
to which they are confined. These heathens are
being constantly employed by the planters in their
neighbOurhood, to whom they come for work,
and are certain to come rapidly within the in
huence Of civilization. Their first step is always,
in such cases, to send for a native missionary to
teach them how TO read and write The difficulty of
supplying these native missionaries has been always
severely felt. In many instances it has compelled
the hasty training and selection of some native,
whose quickness of intellect may obtain for him q
prominence which his subsequent conduct showed
that his character does not justify, Men of his
kind have brought great discredit upon native teach
ers among thoughtless white men; but all are agreed
as to the excellence of the regularly trained teachers
at the head Institution in the Islands where they are
taken when young, and brought up under the eye Of
the white missionary il charge. A moments consi-
deration of the vast requirements of 122, 500 church
attendants and of nearly 80, 900 scholars of all ages,
with only a few white missionaries to see to the work,
will shew how grave must have been the pressure for
native teachers, especially during the last few years
when such rapid additions were made to the number
Of the converted.
Hitherto the schools established in native villages
have confined their teaching to the most elementary
subjects. The textbook has been the Bible-chiehy
the New Testament-with writing and cyphering.
The only literature opened 10 native use beyond the
Testament (for the Bible as a whole Is rare, and
almost out of print) are some few TRANSACTIONS Of
such works as " Robinson Crusoe and "The Pill
grim's Progress" Admirable as this course Of read
ing may be in itself it clearly does not e~nlighten the
minds of the natives in any matters of modern pro-
gress or improvement. The Wesleyan missionaries
see this and are acting with the enlightenment which
has always earned for them the respect and warm
sympathy of the white settlers of Fiji. They have
no theories of setting aside the natives and saving
them from contamination by the whites-no medieval
notions of the proper functions of o clergy and of
the proper relations between them and reverent con-
gregations. They are men of the present age and
are anxious only TO do their duty in accordance with
the circumstances and conditions actually surround
ing them. For training young men as teachers they
have already the Circuit Training Schools and for q
higher class of education they have the District
Training School at Viva where the natives are now
taught practical printing and a press of their own is
again at work. But not content with this and rising
to the height of its new responsibilities, the Bau
meeting has decided to establish q good boarding
school in some central and healthy position in the
islands, e" to be under the control Of a head master
who shall possess a University degree The stand
ard of education at the school is to be such as will ft
students for naturalization at anyro the Australian
Universities, and it is to be opened to all natives who
can read and wriie in English, and engage TO adopt
English ciOMiag and manners. We look upon the
last as a specially important resolution. Only now,
(says the Witness) after years Of weary effort to
establish purely native schools in New Zealand. are
we awaking to the necessity of teaching the natives
the English language as the only gateway to real
knowledge and the only means Of access to a litera-
ture capable of attracting them. The missionaries in
FIJI, in thus encouraging the learning of the English
language, are taking a wise course. Among a people
so initiative they have only to secure a few leading
chiefs and they win soon ind every chief in the
group eager to acquire for himself or his children the