The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-30

appointed California Commission to
Washington, themselves immigrants,
turn an eye again toward their previ-
sions. San Francisco, big as she is, is
too small to turn down this great law
of give and take which runs the world
round.
No more gratifying and important
greeting and welcome to the Confer
ence could have been given than that
which was extended by the Hawaiian
Board. 1t was wholly unexpected, but
when the grave and dignified Commit
tee of venerable men, came into the
Conference room, it was surmised at
once that they bore commission, and
the business was suspended that they
might be received. The Hon. p. c..
Jones. President of the Board, was
presented first, and he presented the
Rev. DR.. Serene E. Bishop to speak
for the Committee. He is the oldest
living male person born IN the islands.
The other members of the Committee
were the Rev DR.. Hiram Bingham, for
many years a missionary in the Gill
bert Islands. and who is now engaged
under the direction of the American
Board in translating the Bible into the
language spoken in those islands; the
Rev. O. H. Gulick, who was a mission
airy in Japan for twenty years, and
Mr. Theodore Richards, treasurer of
the Hawaiian Board, son of a late
prominent Methodist layman OF Brook
lyn New York, and who was himself
a Methodist for many years, and Il
graduate of the Wesleyan University.
DR.. Bishop who is more than eighty
years old, recalled distin city the visit
to these islands of the Rev Jason Lee,
first missionary to Oregon, and also
that of the Methodist missionaries who
constituted the early reinforcement
in Oregon, and who had come hither
from the Southern Ocean bound for the
Column bia river. His address would
make a good marginal reading of the
history of missions in Oregon. What
has God wrought in these islands and
on the Pacific Coast in the three quar-
tiers of the century? I was reminded
that 1 was present once in an annual
meeting of the Boston Old School
Boys Association when 1 heard one of
the members. then about ninety years
old, say he had chartered the Thad-
deus to carry the first missionaries TO
the Sandwich Islands, and that the
owner of the vessel was present, to
The venera BILE shipping merchant,
man who was still older, then arose
and described the outfit of the mission
aries, and gave some account of their
farewell in Boston Harbor.
But it is to the Hawaiian Board, and
the church in Honolulu the great cred
it is due for the Christianization of
these islands. The American Board
planted, but at length left the mis-
sion very largely to itself to get the
increase. The story is fascinating as
that of the recovery of the islanders i'll
Fiji l have not found SO great benev-
oIence, no, not in all Methodism. Mill
lions of money have been expended for
the joy of giving. There are men here
now. who only make money to give
it all away. The resident white Con-
gregational church members in the
Territory of Hawaii give annually
$4,000 to foreign missions. and 1000
to home missions. If the 100000 or
more Congregaionalists on the main
land were to give in like proportion
they would pay annually to foreign