Missionary Work in the Fiji Islands.
THE following compilation of interesting statistics is from the "Australian Hand-book" for 1883:— It has been said that the late history of Fiji may be almost considered identical with the record of missionary enterprise. In no place has missionary effort been more successful, or its fruits been more apparent. It is only forty-seven years ago (1835) that the first missionaries, the Rev. William Cross and David Cargill, M. A., landed at Lakemba. They found the Fijians at nearly the lowest depths of degradation—blood-thirsty, and addicted to cannibalism and all manner of vice. To-day finds the whole of them professing Christians; cannibalism has ceased since 1878, polygamy is abolished, and the idol worship of past ages has given place to the worship of the true God, and generally there is peace. Many of the converts are said to maintain a consistent walk, and in all a great revolution, in outward morals at least, has taken place, even if there has not been a real change of heart. These remarks scarcely apply, however, to the tribes of the interior of the Viti Levu, who are estimated at from 7,000 to 20,000, and who for some time held out against any advance of civilization into their territory. They have, however, been punished on more than one occasion, and there is every reason to expect that, with the establishment of British rule in Fiji, they will find it to their interest to keep on good terms with those surrounding them. The following are the returns of the Wesleyan Church in the Fiji District, which includes the island of Rotumah (now annexed to the colony), for the year 1881: Churches, 776; other preaching places, 432; missionaries, 8; native ministers, 47; catechists, 21; teachers, 1,029; Sabbath-school teachers, 2,351; local preachers, 1,527; class leaders, 2,681; English church members, 36; native church members, 24,109; on trial for membership, 5,250; communicants, 19; Sabbath-schools, 1,391; Sabbath scholars, 40,728; day schools, 1,760; day scholars, 40,323; attendants on public worship, 102,639; deaths, 755. These results are due to Wesleyan enterprise alone, no other Protestant denomination having been present until within the last few years, when the Rev. W. Floyd, D. D., a Church of England clergyman, was located at Levuka; Mr. Pool was appointed Assistant Reader in 1879. It is proposed to establish a Bishopric in Fiji in connection with the Church of England. The Roman Catholics have for some time had a mission in the islands. It is under the name of Prefecture Apostolique, and is governed by an Apostolic Prefect, under the French dependence of Rome. Their influence, and the body itself, is small, compared to that of the Wesleyans. The number of church members (Catholic) is stated at 8,000. Sir Arthur Gordon, the late Governor of the colony, speaking at Exeter Hall, in May 1878, said, "Out of a population of something like 120,000 more than 102,000 are regular attendants at Wesleyan churches, and the remaining 18,000 are not heathen, but for the most part members of other Christian churches. The people of Fiji are now a Christian people. Not to mention smaller and inferior places of worship, about 800 churches have been built. Out of sixty-two ordained ministers now employed in those islands, over fifty are natives, and nearly all the lesser teachers, such, for instance, as school-teachers, numbering over 3,000, are natives also."