MELANESIA AND ITS PEOPLE. IOI 
the old-time conditions. They brought back in a measure the outer 
trappings of civilization, but were ignorant of its power. While their 
axes lasted they made it easier for someone else to work; their pur- 
chases gave them for the time being a certain amount of importance; 
but once their stock was finished their influence was at an end. 
One of the cures for the present state of things in Melanesia is un- 
doubtedly work, but work on plantations for wages is not necessarily 
an agency that makes either for the setting up of the influences that 
have made nations great or insures the end which all desire who 
have the welfare of these child races at heart, viz, the ultimate sur- 
vival of these peoples. 
The comparative scantiness of the population is the real difficulty 
in the evangelization of Melanesia. There must be an assembling 
of the scattered units of population in the islands, and since one of 
the first results of the propagation of Christianity in Melanesia is 
the gathering together of the people in a community where hitherto 
they have been living as scattered units all over the face of the land, 
it seems obvious that the initiative in the program of work will lie 
with the missions. Once Christianity spreads, and, as a result of its 
spreading, peace is established, and old feuds die down and murder 
and bloodshed cease and villages are formed in these large islands 
with their scattered peoples, then the place of the government is to 
see that offenses against life and moral law and order are punished 
in order that the people may be given a chance to grow up and become 
settled and organized. How else shall it come to pass that “that 
which is no nation” shall become a nation? ‘There can be no offense 
felt by the missionaries at the government thus guarding what is won; 
already cases of witchcraft among the Heathen are cognizable by the 
government authorities, and they punish breaches of the moral law 
among Christians when such are brought under their notice. The 
missions can still exercise their own discipline and the secular author- 
ities will not interfere with the spiritual side of the work. On the other 
hand, since the missions are the bringers of peace, the government 
can eal no offense in serving them and following them up and con- 
solidating the results of their work. The missions have the first and 
best opportunity in the matter; they are thoroughly in touch with 
the natives and have, or ought to have, an abundance of first-class 
material ready to their hands for compelling men to come in from the 
highways and hedges and fill the House of God. Nevertheless the 
government itself is doing much for the ultimate salvation of the 
peoples; head hunting has been stopped completely, and wild places 
like the north end of Malaita are being brought into order by the 
establishment of government stations. So far as the Melanesian Mis- 
sion is concerned it would seem obvious that the future demands a 
large increase of native clergy if the ground is to be won. 
