p. 251 | Religion in Tahiti

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 16, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 16.

Religion in Tahiti

THE island of Tahiti, one of the first in Polynesia to be reached by missionary efforts, has to-day a motley population of natives, Europeans, and Chinese, numbering, in all the group, 9,551. The French protectorate began in 1844 and ended in colonial annexation shortly after the death of Queen Pomare, in 1878. An article by Rev. Mr. Pearse, in the Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, speaks of the present condition of the island, affirming that there is great drunkenness and profligacy among the people not connected with the Protestant mission. There is full freedom of worship, and the papist and Protestant forms of religion are living side by side, the former being under the patronage of the Government. The Government schools are Roman Catholic, and the natives who are adherents of that faith are not called to bear any of the expense of public worship. But the contrast in results is very striking. Among the native population the Protestants outnumber the papists ten to one. The eighteen Protestant churches have 2,377 members, besides adherents, while the ten papist churches have not more than 200 members with adherents. The hold that true religion has over this native population is spoken of as wonderful. Against the baneful example of the foreign population, and surrounded with manifold temptations, these native Christians are living faithful, prayerful, godly lives.—Sel.