p. 18 | The Avondale School Press by E. C. Chapman

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 13, 1907

The Avondale School Press

By E. C. Chapman

A Review of the Past Seven Years' Work, and Its Present Prospects

During the year 1899 light was given through the spirit of prophecy that a printing-office should be established at Avondale. The outlook, at the time, was in some respects forbidding, as the school was struggling under the heavy load of an indebtedness of £4,600. The sanitarium, Health Food Company, and the conferences were all in a similar condition of financial perplexity, which seemed to be increasing from year to year. School printing-offices, too, had not a good reputation in the minds of many. Yet at such a time the brethren were advised to launch another enterprise. Notwithstanding that the school board looked upon the enterprise with some forebodings, the institution was launched with a meager equipment.

Seven years ago we arrived here to connect with the printing work, which was then located in a small room in the carpenter's shop. As we take a retrospective glance over the years that have passed, we are strongly impressed that truly the Lord hath wrought for us, and has, at the same time, demonstrated the soundness of the counsel given by the spirit of prophecy nearly eight years ago.

Each year since 1901 has witnessed a growth in the work of the Avondale School Press. The financial aspect, which was at first very unpromising, has greatly changed. Confidence has been established, and our credit is now excellent with the wholesale houses. The printing work, which was at first separate from the school, has, for about three years, been under the watch-care and management of the school board, and this change has proved advantageous to both parties. The sphere of work and the influence of the press have been enlarged, the confidence of the brethren in the proper conduct of the business has been increased, the present worth of the school has been augmented, and the educational phase of the enterprise has been more than doubled, as the result of the change.

Our force of regular employees now numbers twenty, all of whom, with the exception of the one in charge, are connected with the school family as students. Besides the twenty regular helpers, there are twelve young people of the school who are members of the industrial class, and work with us at certain periods each week.

Among our helpers are many apt and promising young people who have a definite aim in training for the Lord's work. And while we have been glad to see some of our workers leaving us for the mission fields during the past year, we have others gaining a fitting up for service. There are but few of these young people who would be able to attend our school, because of lack of funds, if it were not for the arrangement of the industrial department, and for the credit which accrues to the students therefrom.

During the month that has just passed, we have had the pleasure of moving into the new building that has just been erected for the printing work. It is forty-two feet in breadth by eighty feet in length, and seems to be just what the work requires. It has cost us about four hundred pounds. The building was erected by students and teachers; and the arduous labor of arranging shafting, and moving heavy machinery and material, without missing an issue of any of our publications, has been entirely accomplished by workers of the school family.

We are now printing regularly the Australasian Good Health, which is an illustrated monthly publication of about seven thousand circulation, the Union Conference Record, which is an eight-page weekly, the eight-page monthly Tahitian paper called Te Maramarama, which means “the light,” and also the four-page Rarotongan paper, which is now registered as a newspaper and called Tuatua Mou. We have been producing tracts, papers, and books in eight languages, and soon two more East Indian languages will be added to the list. We have just shipped the first case of an illustrated edition of “Christ Our Saviour” in Romanized Malay, to Singapore. There are still scores of tongues in our mission territory untouched by us.

May God guide, that the work may grow as he sees fit, for his name's sake, is our prayer. E. C. CHAPMAN.