The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-09-08
GOT GOOD WATER.
What Mr.. Buckner Did For UnfOr-
tunate Natives.
One Form of Practical Missionary Work-Tun
nelIed ana Refreshing Floods
Burst Forth.

A venerable looking old gentleman,
with a wife leaning on his arm, trod
the decks of the brig Galilee as she lay
at anchor in Mission bay last evening.
He was the Rev. w G. Buckner, who
had just returned from two years mis-
sionary service in Pitcairn Island, says
the San Francisco Chronicle of August
23d. Pitcairn Island is a small speck
on the Pacific ocean, about a mile and
a half in diameter and containing
about 135 inhabitants, all told. Not a
wide field for missionary effort; yet
Mr.. Buckner is we'll satisfied with the
result of his efforts. His principal
achievement was in furnishing the ma
tives with an abundance of clear, cold,
healthful water.
Previous to his visit the people of the
island were compelled to drink warm
and stagnant rain water months old at
some seasons of the year. The stuff
had quenched their thirst through so
many generations that they had be-
come accustomed to regard it as re-
freshing. 1t was not until Mr.. Buck
rock from which a food gushed out,
that they knew what good water really
was.
Mr.. Buckner formerly conducted the
Seventh-Dav Adventist Church of
Stockton, and was sent down to the
Island by the Oakland Adventists. On
the outward trip two years ago he was
very sick Arriving at Pitcairn, his
first request was for a glass of fresh
water. He had become SO tired of the
ships stale drink that he could hardly
swallow it, and on the last few days
of the voyage had been kept alive by
the hope that on reaching land he
would have a chance to get a cool,
fresh drink. What was his horror
when the natives fastened to him with
a cup of the nastiest stuff he had ever
tasted.
Rain water is bad enough said Mr..
Buckner, relating his experience, but
this was old rainwater. Probably it
was three months old, and originally it
had been collected from a thached
roof. | would rather have drank fair
water with heavy charge OF lObelia
in it than the stuff they poured into me.
Immediately [ grew stronger l began
to explore the little mountainous island
TO try to discover a spring. but my
search was unavailing. The natives eX-
planned to me that there was wet
spring up on the side of the mountain,
which ran only in the rainy season,
but in the dry season they had only
the water they stored in casks filled
from their roofs when il was raining.
Later. however, | became somewhat
acquainted with the traditions of the
island.
An old native one day in converse
ton told me that years and years ago
the people of the island were supplied
with the best of water by stream that
came out of the hillside. but which had
beeen filled up by a landslide. l got him
to tell me all he knew about the lOca-
ton of the stream. thinking if it ran
there once it must be still running
One day with a party of natives | be-
gan tunneling into the side of the
mountain at a point indicated by the
old sage, and after going only about
twenty feet, to my profound surprise
and qualification a great volume OF the
clearest, coolest water you ever drank
shot forth with great force. The stream
has every evidence of being perpetual.
The land slide had so packed the earth