A Remarkable Example of Decline. 



The Rev. F. Langham, Chairman, Wesleyan 

 Mission, did not ascribe their decline to im- 

 morality, but thought that " frequent abortions 

 might have some influence in the matter." 



Mr. Langham being one of the oldest mission- 

 aries in that part, one might have expected some 

 enlightenment from him. Still, on the whole, we 

 have gained some wonderful admissions from 

 the missionaries, all tending to show the real 

 cause of the Fijian decline. 



It seems hardly credible, that such a fearless 

 and warlike race, could have been cowed down 

 to the extent that they were, and in such a few 

 years. Had the main object of the Europeans 

 been to bring them into utter subjection, they 

 could not have adopted a more effectual plan. 

 Yet the people who were the cause of this 

 subjection were as much bewildered as its 

 victims. 



Lord Stanmore, formerly Sir A. H. Gordon, 

 first Governor of Fiji, was invited to attend the 

 Missionary Conference at St. James's Hall on 

 May 3ist, 1894, to give an account of the effect 

 of missionary enterprise in that part of the 

 world. 



To judge from the report published by the 

 Daily Chronicle on the following day, those who 

 expected to hear something laudatory of mis- 

 sionary influence, must have experienced a shock 

 at the tone of Lord Stanmore's address. 



In describing village life, he said : 



" In the centre of the village is the cricket 

 field, a desolate expanse of dry earth, on one side 

 of which is the church, a wooden, barn-like 

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