The Hawaiian gazette., 1912-05-28
TONGA BISHOP
TELLS OF LABORS
AGED PREIATE SPEAKS TO LARGE
CONGREGATION AT EPISCOPAL
CATHEDRAL ON ISLANDS.
CFrom MOnaay,a Advertiser.l

st. Andrews Cathedral Bishop Willis
of Tonga spoke of the life as he has
found it in the South Sea Islands, where
his bshopric is situated. He said:
"Your bishop has invited me to ad-
dress you this evening on Tonga with
reference to the work of our own branch
of the church. But as that work only
began ten years ago when went down
there in obedience to a call received,
the work that has been done can be
told in few words. I propose there
fere to take wider scope and en-
deavor to engage your interest in
question to me of absorbing interest.
How the islands of this vast Pacific
Ocean were originally peopled, and
whence they came from.
eff you look at a map of the Pacific
you will see that the 1S0th parallel of
longitude marks line of demarcation
between two races.
"In the eastern hemisphere the ISL
ands form a continuous chain, from
New Guinea to Borneo, so that there is
nothing very wonderful in a population
reaching these islands. But in the
western. hemisphere it is different. AS
you voyage now in an ocean liner be-
tween Honolulu and Suva or Samoa, it
is impressive to think of the endurance
and courage and skill of the hardy
navigators who centuries ago found
their way by the stars across these 1000
or 5000 miles of ocean. In paper of
your historical society some years ago
it was shown that at one period COM
munication was kept up between these
islands and Tahiti, the names being
preserved of some of those adventurous
navigators. 1t was in comparatively
recent times that the race first reached
New Zealand. The names of the canoes
in which the voyage was made being
still preserved. This Polynesian race is
now called by ethnologists Sawaiori-a.
word composed of Sa for Samoa, wal
for Hawaii and orr for Maori
/ ''Turn to that most interesting chap
ter of the Bible, the Tenth of Genesis,
which l fear very few people read.
which gives the pedigree of the nation
after the flood, you will find that Sheba
was in the first generation from Shem,
and he it was who gave his name to
the kingdom in Arabia which had be-
come famous in the days of Christ.
Situated on the Persian Gulf there can
be little doubt that as far back as the
days of Solomon trade was already
carried on with India, and if that were
the case, we know there was shipbuild-
ing on the Red Sea and why not on the
Persian Gulf alsoq 1t is easy to conceive
how among those navigators, there were
some, either seeking for new sources Of
trade or impelled by the desire of dis-
II covering of new lands who would sail
on eastward till new groups of islands
were discovered, and in this way these
various groups of islands were reached
and peopled.
''Now a few words on the work of
the Anglican church in Tonga. 1t was
in 1877 that the first attempt was made
to bring in the Anglican church into
Tonga. The strange part of the move
inent was that the author of it was not
himself a minister of the Anglican
church or even member of it, though
the natives who Joined him were led
to believe that he was. Native c0ngre-
cations were formed in each of the
three groups, and with the Prayer Book
partially translated into Tongan, they
met in q native house for morning and
evening services. But when it came to
i light that their leader was not an or
, dained clergyman of the church, they
, separated from him, but expressed their
resolve to carry on the services as we'll
. as they could by themselves until the
Church of England could send someone
to their help. At the end of 1900,
at the time when was writing my re-
signation of this See to his Grace the
. Archbishop of Canterbury the heads of
these Tongan congregations were draft
ing a petition begging me to come over
, to help them. This seemed to me call
! that / was bound to obey. That is
what took me down. With a few ex-
! captions those who asked me to go
down there have remained loyal to the
: church. My first work was to complete
h the translation of the Prayer Book, and
e then to proceed there with translations
a of hymns.
y "To conclude what have to say, let
G me ask you once again to think of those
n hardy navigators, who first traversed
+ the vast space of the Pacific Ocean
!. and peopled the islands OF the Pac1hc
e Not one of us would endure for a day
e the discomfort and persecution to which
il they must have been subject for weeks
Il and weeks on those long voyages. How
e. ever they were led to embark on those
voyages, they were-no doubt uneon
sciously- observing that primal law i'm
pressed on the human race of replenish
"a ing the earth.
= "Now when you think of the hero
n. ism, the fearlessness, the hardihood, dis
!. played in fulfilling that first duty Of
"a mankind to people the whole earth
IN ought we not to derive from it an in
ct spiration to initiate their example il
M obeying the last command of our blessed
Lord to 90 into all the worldf For th'
AZ church that He would found was to b.
= Catholic church as distinguished from
. the Jewish. It was the church of on
u uakfnr lana puk 4ha Churcb ~ Hhria