MELANESIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 179 
Santa Maria in the Banks, a certain number are still Heathen, while in 
the large islands practically 85 per cent are still outside the Mission’s 
influence. 
The total population of the islands in the sphere of the Mission 
numbers anything between 100,000 and 150,000, and the large islands, 
Malaita, San Cristoval, and Guadalcanar, contain on a moderate 
estimate 70,000 of the total. It is not surprising that on an island 
like Malaita, which is 100 miles long and contains a scattered popu- 
lation of 30,000 or 40,000 people, comparatively little progress has been 
made, but it is especially regrettable that there.are still three Heathen 
villages on a small island like Ulawa, and that tiny places like Sikaiana, 
Rennell and Bellona, and Santa Anna are still unworked. However, 
it must be understood that the evangelizing of Melanesia is a pecul- 
aarly difficult task, as is shown by the fact that in Tanna in the New 
Hebrides, where the attack on Heathenism has been incessant and 
where the Presbyterian missionaries have been in actual residence 
from the very start of the work, a portion of the island is still Heathen. 
Nevertheless, better results might have been obtained in our own 
sphere. 
OTHER MISSIONARY AGENCIES IN MELANESIA. 
The Melanesian Mission is not the only evangelizing body in its 
sphere of work. Roman Catholic missionaries settled in the Solomons 
about 1897 and made their headquarters at a little island called Rua 
Sura, off the east coast of Guadalcanar and fairly close to the trading 
station at Aola. A good deal of their work has been done on the west 
coast of Guadalcanar near Mole. One of their methods of progress has 
been to adopt children from the Heathen parts and to rear them in 
Christian surroundings. They made settlements also along the north 
end of the island, often in the villages belonging to the Melanesian Mis- 
sion, and have begun work on the southeast coast of San Cristoval and 
on the west coast of Big Malaita. They have stations also at the south 
end of Raga, New Hebrides. 
The Kanaka labor trade was responsible for the advent of certain 
missionaries of Protestant bodies into the Solomons. Most of the 
Melanesians in Queensland who attended school and church were 
cared for by the Queensland Kanaka Mission, a Protestant body. 
At Malu, a place at the north end of Big Malaita, some returned Chris- 
tians who had been converted by the agency of these schools of the 
Queensland Kanaka Mission and some devoted white missionaries 
came to the Solomons in a labor vessel and settled at Malu. But the 
malarial conditions of the place and lack of proper equipment brought 
about their removal and two of them eventually died of malaria. 
When the Kanakas were all deported the Queensland Kanaka Mission 
followed their old pupils and made regular stations on Malaita. ‘Their 
