The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-04-17
LIFE WORK Of
BISHOP THOBURN
Long Years of Labor in India
and What Has Been
Achieved.

Bishop T. NJ Thoburn, one of the
worlds best known laborers in the mis-
sion field of India, passed through here
en- route to the Coast, last Sunday.
The Bishop has been in India since
1859. arriving just after the close OF
the mutiny.
He has labored in the Himalayas, the
plains of northern India, in Lucknow, III
Calcutta and in Bombay. He went to
Calcutta in 1874 and stayed there
twenty-five years.
Bishop Thoburn, who is a Methodist
Episcopalian, went out to India as a
missionary when twenty-three years of
age. He is now seventy-one, but hale,
hearty and well-preserved. In 1888 he
was elected Bishop of the Methodist
Episcopal church in India.
In the course of his ministry in In
dia he has experienced great hardships,
having broken his leg three times and
his arm once. All these accidents, with
one exception, were caused by falls
from horses.
The Bishop has now relinquished his
work in the foreign field and is going
home He will not remain idle, how
ever, but will take up administrative
work in connection with the Methodist
Missionary Society.
He will make his home in Portland,
Oregon, where he has two children and
four grandchildren living.
Bishop Thoburn is enamored with the
climate of Honolulu.
"There is only one other place like
it, said he to reporter, 'and that
is Samoa. I have wondered oftentimes
why Robert Louis Stevenson shut him.
self off from the world in which he
walked so prominently, to finish his ex-
istence on a tropic island. The reason
has dawned on me since being in Ho-
nolulu He wanted rest and the peace
which is only bequeathed to jewellers
in the Paeife's wonderful islands.
Questioned as to India, the Bishop
said:
India has changed vastly since I
went there first. 1t has been made
over. When I went out there were only
125 miles of railroad in the country;
today there are 10000 miles.
1.-The most remarkable thing is the
expansion of education. The govern
and today there are over 100000 chill
dren of all languages enrolled.
81 think well of the British admin
istration. The situation, however, is
a very difficult one and at the very
best, the authorities can't do perfect
work There is no question that the
British authorities have definitely de-
cided to introduce education among all
classes and peoples in India, includ-
ing girls
Fifty years ago there were no girls
schools and the people We're deeply
prejudiced against educating women
If it had not been for the missionaries
who had direct access to large num-
bers of people, the task would have
in this work, perhaps, that the mis-
sionaries achieved their best results.
Medical colleges have been intro
duced, by missionary influence, and
today hundreds of young women are
studying medicine. This is an ines
Unable blessing to India. Formerly
the millions of women in the empire |
could obtain no medical relief what |
ever. Male doctors were not permitted |
to see them under severe penalties.
LAS regards the political state of |
India, there is a good deal of agitation
against the exclusion the natives
from a share in the government of
their country, but there is no war in
it, neither is there any rebellion.
christianity meets with far greater
favor than formerly. In bygone years
people used to be afraid of Christianity
and stunned it as they would the lep-
rosy. All this has passed away, how
ever, and large numbers are becoming
Christians every year.
The Methodist Episcopalians have
over $4,000 converts of all ages and
there are perhaps 10000 candidates
recommended for admission to the fold
The Presbyterians and Baptists are
also doing great work, as are some of
the English societies. All in all the
outlook is very hopeful"