506 



METHODISTS. 



MEXICO. 



tion, who had joined the Congregatioualists, 

 to be re-adtnitted to the Conference, as to 

 whether it was expedient to re-admit ministers 

 who had loft the body, and then, presumably 

 because they had not succeeded elsewhere, 

 offered to return. With this was involved the 

 question whether it was right and just to take 

 the applicant when stations could hardly be 

 found for ministers already recognized, and 

 when candidates were obliged to stand over. 

 The applicant was not admitted. A Sunday- 

 school secretary was appointed, an annual day 

 of prayer for Sunday-schools was set apart, 

 and provision was made for the insertion of a 

 column in the numerical schedule showing 

 what scholars had joined the church during 

 the year. 



VIII. AUSTRALASIAN WESLEYAN METHODIST 



CHURCH. This church includes the several 

 annual conferences in Australia, Tasmania, 

 and New Zealand, the Wesleyan South Sea 

 missions, and local missions to the Chinese in 

 Victoria, the Maories in New Zealand, and 

 Scandinavian settlers. It embraces, according 

 to the statistical reports presented to the Gen- 

 eral Conference in May, 303 ministers, with 

 42 supernumeraries, and 104 preachers on trial, 

 (51,045 members, and 8,172 persons on trial for 

 membership. 



The receipts of the Australasian Wesleyan 

 Missionary Society were reported at the an- 

 nual meeting in Sydney, January 27th, to have 

 been 14,677. This society has charge of the 

 South Sea missions, including the missions in 

 the Feejee and Friendly Islands, Samoa, and 

 Rotuinah, which were formerly under the 

 direct control of the British Wesleyan Mis- 

 sionary Society, and also the newly established 

 mission in New Britain, New Ireland, and the 

 Duke of York Islands, and returned for them 

 13 English and 55 native ministers, with 33,033 

 native members and 5,641 persons on trial for 

 membership. 



The General Conference of the Australasian 

 Wesleyan Methodist Church met at Adelaide, 

 May llth. The Rev. J. S. Waugh, D. D., was 

 chosen president. An application was re- 

 ceived from the New Zealand Conference, ask- 

 ing, on account of its remoteness from the 

 other conferences of the connection, to be set 

 off as a self-governing and independent body. 

 The Conference judged the proposal prema- 

 ture, and invited the New Zealand Conference 

 to submit a plan or constitution for the pro- 

 posed organization before the change should 

 be definitely pronounced upon. The churches 

 in Tonga, or the Friendly Islands, were erected 

 into a separate district. The resolution of the 

 previous General Conference with reference to 

 class-meetings was re-affirmed. It insists upon 

 attendance at class-meetings as a test for mem- 

 bership in the church, but authorizes the 

 recognition of devout persons " who can not 

 be persuaded to attend the class-meeting" 

 as communicants, and the issuing of communi- 

 cants' tickets to them. A committee was ap- 



pointed to prepare counsels and suggestions 

 for a more efficient conduct of the society 

 classes. A form of service for the public 

 recognition of members was prepared. The 

 subject of the conduct of the Rev. George 

 Brown, missionary in New Britain and New 

 Ireland, who had in 1878 conducted a military 

 or police expedition against cannibal chiefs 

 who had killed and eaten some of the mission- 

 ary teachers, was reviewed, and Mr. Brown 

 was heard in his own defense. A resolution 

 which had been passed by the New South 

 Wales and Queensland Conference, recognizing 

 the dangerous position in which Mr. Brown 

 had been placed, but regretting that no other 

 course than the one he had taken was open to 

 him which would insure the safety of those of 

 whom he was regarded as the protector, was 

 approved; and a resolution was afterward 

 adopted, expressing sympathy with Mr. Brown, 

 and intimating that he had not violated the 

 regulations which governed the missionary 

 work of the Church. A proposition from the 

 English Wesleyan Missionary Society asking 

 to be relieved from its engagement to assist 

 the Australasian missions with funds, on paying 

 1,500 for the current year and 750 for the 

 next year, was accepted, with the reservation 

 of the right to review the subject in the next 

 General Conference. 



MEXICO (ESTADOS UNIDOS DE MEXICO, or 

 REPUBLIC A MEXIOANA). The following table, 

 reproduced from the " Anales," published by 

 the Ministry of Public Works in 1881, exhibits 

 the population of the different States, etc., of 

 the republic, with their capitals, and the num- 

 ber (for the most part estimated) of inhabit- 

 ants contained in these last : 



* Until recently Jalapa was the capital of the State of Vera 

 Cruz. 



