192 MELANESIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 
NATIVES OF MELANESIA. 
Bishop G. A. Selwyn evidently had a very high opinion of the value 
of the work likely to be done by natives in the propagation of the Gos- 
pel in Melanesia, when he referred to them as the “black net,” the 
white priests at the same time forming the ‘‘corks” of the gospel net. 
The Bishop’s idea has been followed faithfully enough, so far as the 
mere manning of the Mission with native teachers goes, and the work 
of these native teachers occupies a very large place in the Melanesian 
Mission to-day; nor can there be any doubt whatever of their ability, 
under proper circumstances, to do what the founder of the Mission 
planned that they should do. Still, it can not be questioned that up to 
the present time the native Christians, teachers and people alike, fall 
short in the performance of their part in the casting of the Gospel net. 
The truth of the matter would seem to be that the native church has 
not yet risen to a sense of its duty in the work of evangelization; Chris- 
tianity has seemed to the converts to be more a thing brought from 
outside and to be accepted along with the rest of the white man’s 
things than a matter vitally concerning themselves and depending on 
their cooperation. 
If the white teachers were removed from Melanesia to-day the prob- 
ability is that, though the daily services and daily school would still 
be held in most of the villages, yet there would be no advance and no 
enlargement of the work, no widening of the borders, and in such places 
as were manned by less able teachers it is doubtful whether the past 
gains of the Mission would be consolidated. The church life of the 
villages depends almost entirely on the teacher alone; the native church 
has not been trained in methods of self-government and no legislative 
machinery exists; there is no village council to advise or strengthen the 
hands of the teacher, and should he fail the whole work would probably 
come to anend. Nor is there anything in the way of self-support in 
the native church. The Mission supplies the teacher’s pay and the 
people have no duties incumbent on them in connection with the 
upkeep of religion. 
It was thought originally that the withdrawal of the white mission- 
ary for four or six months every year would tend to encourage habits 
of self-reliance among the native teachers and would strengthen their 
characters and would foster the idea that eventually the native church 
must stand alone. But it certainly seemed as if the time when one 
was away was more fruitful in cases of wrong-doing than when one was 
actually present among the people. The Mission priest on returning 
to his work in the islands is apt to be faced with a sad account of what 
has happened “behind his back.” He may notice the absence here 
and there, from church and school, of certain persons, and 1 mquiry may 
elicit the information that they were “outside the inclosure,”’ the 
