An Appeal for the Australasian Field
By E. M. Graham
Our people are being asked to contribute of their means to help carry the third angel’s message to the people of Australasia. In order to do this intelligently, it is necessary to know something of the country, what has already been done there to advance this cause, and what is needed to continue this work in an effective manner. Australasia is a large country, being six-sevenths as large as the United States before Alaska was added. But it is sparsely populated, having only 4,648,705 inhabitants, according to the last census. Of these 174,233 are in Tasmania, 830,000 in New Zealand, and the remainder on the mainland. In Australia the people are chiefly confined to the seaboard, as the interior is largely desert. But there are large tracts of land, called the back blocks, devoted to cattle and sheep raising, in the interior of some States, where there is a small and widely scattered population. The size of the territory, and the scattered condition of the people, make this a difficult field to work, and an expensive one; for much traveling must be done to reach the people. Fares are high, and traveling lacks the conveniences enjoyed in the United States. But in other ways it is not a difficult country. There is little prejudice against our work. There are Sunday laws, but so far they have not been put in operation against us. People come out readily to hear the preaching of the truth, and the health principles of our message are received with enthusiasm. These things indicate that now is the time to push the work here, while we are able to secure a hearing so easily, before the enemy closes the way before us. The Lord, through the spirit of prophecy, has spoken plainly concerning this field, and its relation to the work of the third angel’s message. The faithful canvassers have traversed the field from one end to the other, and it is the exception to enter a home, and find no Adventist literature of any sort. The book sales have always been, and still are very large. This work has been followed by camp-meetings, tent meetings, Bible workers, and other agencies, and as a result a conference has been organized in each State, seven in all. The present membership is 2,306, and there are about one hundred Sabbath-keepers not yet organized. The people are faithful in tithes and offerings. They pay the highest average tithe of any country in the world, with one exception, as will be seen from the table given in the Bulletin. But the burden laid upon them of working this large country is at present more than they can carry without help. A training-school, called the Avondale School for Christian Workers, has been established, and is doing good work in training laborers for the home and island fields. Connected with it is a printing office, the Sanitarium Health Food Company’s factory, and the Avondale Health Retreat, a small sanitarium, which is at present closed, for lack of a physician to manage it. These institutions have all been established in harmony with the instruction given by the Lord through his servant. In Melbourne, Victoria, where the work was first started, is a large and well-equipped printing and publishing house, where most of our denominational books are now being printed and bound. The long distance of Australasia from the United States makes the importation of books very unsatisfactory, and has made it necessary for most of the work to be done on the ground. This office stands high in credit, and does excellent work. The medical work was started in a small way near Sydney, and grew to such proportions that about three years ago we were instructed through the spirit of prophecy to arise and build an institution that would fitly represent to the world the principles of health that the Lord had given us. In obedience to this command a sanitarium has been erected a few miles from Sydney, and it was dedicated January 1 of this year. It will accommodate from sixty to ninety patients, and is a plain, but good building, light, airy, and convenient. It has been an expensive building to erect; for building materials are very high in price in Australia, every bit of timber used having to be imported from the United States, or some equally distant country. The work was done chiefly by our own people, all of whom worked for lower wages than they would have received elsewhere, so it has been a labor of love, and we expect that the blessing of the Lord will rest upon the institution. In fact, during the first month after it began to receive patients, we reaped the first fruits, for two patients accepted the truths of the message, and united with us. For this we praise God, and take courage. Other institutions of a like character have been started. In New Zealand they have a small sanitarium; in Adelaide there are well-equipped treatment rooms; in Rockhampton we have treatment rooms; in Sydney is a vegetarian café, with treatment rooms connected; there are health food agencies in every capital city, and in a few other cities, and there is an increasing demand for all kinds of health foods. You can see that in the years since the work was started here, a great deal has been accomplished, but there is much more to be done. The field is so large, and the people so widely scattered, that it is necessary to have more institutions in proportion to the people than would be necessary if they were more compactly settled. For instance, we have but one sanitarium in Australia. What impression would this make upon the people in West Australia, two thousand miles away? We should have a small sanitarium in every State. We can reach a class of people through our medical work that we can reach in no other way, and wherever it has been introduced, the results have been most encouraging. To erect the sanitarium we have, our people have given to the utmost of their ability. We have no wealthy people among us. The Sabbath-keepers are almost wholly wage-earners, and many of them retain their situations by sacrificing part of their wages, in order to rest on the Sabbath. There are few property owners among us, so we can not call on our people to sell, and give to the cause. The country has been suffering from a severe drought for several years, which has utterly ruined many people who were once wealthy. It has affected our people very much in some parts, particularly in Queensland, where some have endured great privations. If you could visit your brethren and sisters in some of these places, and see how bravely they are struggling to hold on until better times come, your hearts would go out in sympathy to them. Some have even been reduced to eating boiled prickly pear, to keep from starvation. But they ask no help for themselves, only that you will give of your means to help us carry this message to those who are perishing around us. But notwithstanding the means that have been raised for the sanitarium, and the sacrifices made by the workmen, there is a heavy indebtedness resting upon it, and we need assistance to pay this. We will continue to do all we can to help ourselves, but we appeal to you to come to our help, and remember that we are but two thousand people, trying to carry the work of this large country, in a drought-stricken land, with little means at our command. Missions should be established in each of the large cities, in order to carry out the instruction of the Lord, to work in the cities now. These would no doubt soon become self-supporting, but it takes means to start them. More workers should be put in the field, but we have not more means than will support the workers we already have. Workers are needed as well as money. An illustration will show this. The Pacific Union Conference has about a million square miles less territory than we have, about a million less population to work for; it has eighty-seven ministers, whereas we have sixteen. There are openings on every side. Calls come from every direction, and our hearts ache because we can not fill them. Brethren and sisters, we beseech of you to come to our help, that we may place the work where the Lord says it should be. “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” May the Lord bless you, and fulfill this promise to you.