General Conference Bulletin, vol. 5

IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC ISLANDS

E. H. Gates

Sermon by E. H. Gates, Sunday Evening, April 5

I suppose that most of our brethren and sisters who are here to-night remember with how much enthusiasm the project of carrying the message into Polynesia was taken up about thirteen years ago. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.1

You will remember that the first stop of our missionary schooner “Pitcairn” was at the island of Pitcairn. To-day we have there a church of about sixty. We next sailed 1,250 miles to the northwest of Pitcairn, touching at a large group of islands, called the Society Islands. There were no Sabbath-keepers there when we arrive. We remained two or three months, and when we left there were nine. To-day in that group there are about 110 church members. We have two church buildings in the group, and on the island of Raiatea, about 120 miles west of Tahiti, a school. This school is on a farm that Brother B. J. Cady purchased a few years ago. From a letter just received, I learn that the farm has during the year supported sixteen persons who are in the school, including G. F. Beckner and wife, who are conducting it. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.2

About 600 miles from Tahiti, is the Cook Islands group, Raratonga being the chief island. We visited this group on our first voyage out. Later, Dr. J. E. Caldwell and Elder J. D. Rice labored in the island. Now Brother A. H. Piper and wife, from Australia, are in charge in Raratonga. There are about twenty-five Sabbath-keepers in the island at the present time. Miss Gooding, a student from our Avondale school, is teaching a school in the island with good success. I regret that Brother and Sister Piper are suffering in health, and we may be compelled soon to find other help for this group. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.3

Northwest of Raratonga is the Samoan group. When we first went there, the people did not want us, and showed it. But the prejudice has been removed as our brethren have lived among the people. Here is the sanitarium work, carried on by Dr. Braucht, who has been very successful in treating native diseases. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.4

We have been trying for some time to get out Samoan literature. We found it difficult to secure translations, but at the present time we have the book “Christ Our Saviour” in the Samoan language. We have also in process of translation two other books. One of them, I suppose, is being printed now at Avondale Press, in Australia, and will soon be in the hands of the people. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.5

A few hundred miles from Samoa is another group, the Fiji Islands. This is a group where we have accomplished more, probably, than in any other of these islands. After we were there in 1891, nothing was done for a few years; but finally Brother J. M. Cole located there, and remained for a year or two, having some success. Then he had to leave on account of ill health. Brother J. E. Fulton then went there, and later was joined by Brother C. H. Parker. These brethren labored in Fiji with God’s blessing, and to-day we have nearly two hundred Sabbath-keepers in that group. I speak of this to show you that your work in building the ship “Pitcairn,” and in supporting the laborers there, has not been in vain. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.6

We have in Fiji a little monthly paper, called the “Rarama.” At our Avondale school press we have printed for them a book of about one hundred pages of Bible-readings. We have also printed a large edition of Sabbath and advent tracts, which have been scattered all through the group. As a result, Sabbath-keepers are springing up in all parts. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.7

Several natives who have been public laborers have accepted the truth. Four or five of these young men are being trained by Arthur Carrow, a young man from Australia, and they go out as teachers to the different parts of the group. They get a little piece of land, and raise their own food, which is very simple, consisting largely of yams, taro, and bananas, something of that kind, and it costs only about $35 a year to sustain them. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.8

Brother Carrow writes me:— GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.9

“Yesterday I received a certificate of freedom from the governor, which permits us to send another student to Cooranbong from here. ‘Bless the Lord,’ I hear you say.” GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.10

Yes, I do say so. I will tell you why. When I went to Australia four years ago, to locate there, we had a Union Conference meeting at Cooranbong, where our school is located. One Sabbath Sister White spoke, telling us what had been shown her in regard to the school. She said that we should bring natives from the islands there. and should teach them, and that they should learn printing and such work as that. and then go back to become laborers. Well, we believed that, and went to work to get some of the natives to come to this school for an education. But we found difficulties in the way. In the first place, the authorities in Fiji would not allow them to come. In the second place, the New South Wales government refused to receive them. They could not come there, unless they had a certain amount of knowledge of the English language; and these young men did not have a great amount of knowledge, though they had a little. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.11

I became acquainted with one of the members of Parliament, and he offered to go with us and visit the colonial secretary, and see if we could not induce him to allow us to bring in some natives to attend this school, in case we could get the permission of the Fiji government. The colonial secretary told us plainly that he could not do it; that there was no way to get those natives in. Then, if we had obtained the permission to do that, there was still another difficulty in the way, and that was that the chiefs of the different tribes, of the different villages, could interpose; they could prevent these natives leaving and going to Australia, and they did make an effort to do so. But we believed what God said, and did all we could to prepare the way. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.12

Within the last year the old governor of Fiji has been removed, and a new one has been sent out. Although he is a Catholic, he has already given us permission to send one of our young men to Australia for an education. Now as I read to you here, Brother Carrow says:— GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.13

“Yesterday I received a certificate of freedom from the governor, which permits us to send another student to Cooranbong.” GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.14

To the westward of Fiji, about five hundred miles, there are three or four groups of islands. There is the New Hebrides Group, and New Caledonia, the Santa Cruz Group, the Solomon Island Group, the Bismarck Archipelago. and New Guinea. These islands are all in a state of heathenism: yes, the most of them are in a state of cannibalism. I visited them a year ago. For years we have hoped that we might do something for them. We expected to go there when we were out on the ship twelve years ago, but something prevented it; and on the second and third trips of the “Pitcairn” our ship sailed out among other of those islands, and so nothing has ever been done there. GCB April 9, 1903, page 141.15

We have studied how to open these islands. It is an unhealthful region for white men. When last at Fiji, we talked up the plan of training our young men of Fiji to go into these islands, carrying the truth. They are willing to do it. They will endure the climate, and will be received more readily, as they are of very nearly the same color. GCB April 9, 1903, page 142.1

The islands that I now speak of are called the Melanesian Islands, which simply means the black islands, because the people are the black race there. Those savages need the gospel. The gospel has been carried to them by some other societies, and some have accepted of it. About three years ago I read in an article that many of the natives in this group had in some way obtained the idea that the end of the world was coming soon. I do not know how they got it, unless it was that they read the Bibles that have been given to them, and read there about Christ and His second coming, and perhaps the Spirit of the Lord told them things, they did not get from their teachers. Now, I believe that we ought, just as soon as possible, to send laborers into this field. GCB April 9, 1903, page 142.2

Before I visited the Bismarck Archipelago I thought I knew a little about what heathenism was, but I found I did not. There I found heathenism and savagery complete. They are cannibals. Those cannibals very seldom kill a white man and eat him. They never kill him, I suppose, unless they have been exasperated. The worst heathen in those islands are white men. Many whites take advantage of the poor natives. They get their lands from them, and cheat and oppress them in various ways. The result is that the natives know no other way than to pay back in kind. When I landed there, one year ago, I found that only the day before a white man’s wife, and her little baby, and some of the servants. had been clubbed to death. The whole town was up in arms, chasing those natives. In the afternoon we could see smoke rising in all directions from the hills. I asked what it was, and was told, “Oh, they are burning the villages.” That do they burned the villages down, and shot thirty of them. They kept on for several days, and shot down any one they saw. GCB April 9, 1903, page 142.3

The greatest difficulty in all the Melanesian field is that the white men have gone there, and as the natives have associated with them, they have become more heathen than they were before. It sounds rather harsh, but it is a fact. Their first idea of Christianity is of liquor drinking and tobacco using. They see greed and oppression. When my ship stopped at one point in New Guinea a man came on board who was almost in a dying condition. New Guinea is one of the most unhealthful places in the world. After a few days he recuperated, and I had some conversation with him. He told, with a good deal of satisfaction, that when the natives in the place where he lived had done something that was wrong, he got his rifle and a company of men with him, and went back to their villages and shot down seventy-two of them, and burned their villages. GCB April 9, 1903, page 142.4

Southwest of Fiji is the little island of Norfolk. There we have a church of about fifteen members. In the Tonga, or Friendly Islands, we have a company. Brother E. S. Butz and wife are in charge there. GCB April 9, 1903, page 142.5

During the year I have visited the East Indies and Singapore, to study the conditions, scatter literature, and secure names for missionary correspondence. Here is a vast field to be worked. Brother Munson is having some success among the Chinese in Sumatra, but the great Mohammedan element in the East Indies is untouched. Work must be undertaken for all these peoples without long delay. GCB April 9, 1903, page 142.6